Sherry Dawson shot dead at Houston storage in $125K drug deal gone wrong after husband, Matthew Jasso tried to rip off cocaine buyer, Kip Stitts only for the man to kill middle man’s wife when the drugs failed to show up.
A Texas woman was shot dead in a drug deal gone wrong at a northeast Houston storage unit in November after her common-law husband ‘ripped off’ a drug buyer, according to court documents.
Kip Stitts, of Detroit, Michigan, was charged with the murder of Friday in connection with 33-year-old Sherry Dawson‘s death. As of Wednesday the man remained at large.
The wanted man is described as being a former friend and business associate of Dawson’s common-law husband, Matthew Jasso who reportedly admitted to being involved in drug trafficking.
Swindled cocaine buyer comes looking for his $125K
Investigators say on the morning of the murder, November 5, surveillance video shows a pickup truck following Dawson into a storage unit along the Eastex Freeway. Footage shows the driver having a brief altercation with Sherry before shooting her and speeding away.
While police were investigating the scene, Sherry’s common-law husband Matthew Jasso arrived. Jasso told officers Dawson had gone to the storage unit to pick up some items. When he realized she had been killed, he became distraught and told police he knew who was responsible and why.
According to court documents cited by ABC13, Jasso told police that he worked as a ‘middleman’ in a drug trafficking ring. His job was to collect money from buyers and give it to a supplier. The month prior to Sherry Dawson’s shooting death, Jasso had introduced Stitts to his supplier to arrange a large purchase of cocaine.
According to the husband, Stitts planned to rob the drug supplier, with Jasso warning the supplier about Stitts’ plan. In response, the supplier decided to ‘set up’ Stitts to steal his money as a punishment for the betrayal.
Key court documents placing Detroit suspect at crime scene
At the time, Stitts had paid Jasso $125,000 for a shipment of cocaine only for the drugs to never be delivered. Jasso passed the money to the supplier who gave him a $10,000 cut with the husband then blocking Stitts’ phone number.
Dawson’s husband told police that about two weeks before the murder, he got word that Stitts was looking for him and that he believes his wife was killed because of the money he stole from Stitts.
According to court documents, cellphone data from Stitts’ number placed the wanted man’s device at key spots: surveilling the victim’s home before the shooting, at the storage unit scene around 10:10 a.m., and fleeing north to Detroit by evening. Records also showed calls to a person whose phone activity suggested he picked up Stitts after the shooting.
Hours after the murder, police pulled over another vehicle registered to Stitts in Atascocita, but Stitts wasn’t in the vehicle.
Investigators say his phone began pinging in Detroit the next day.
