Third man charged in Wells Street Christmas homicide: will there be others?
FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---He was the one who wasn’t charged, the guy who emerged from the aftermath of the 2024 Wells Street Christmas shooting rolling out a suitcase.
Well known to law enforcement, Michael O. Beers, 40, avoided handcuffs while two other men paid the price for the shooting death of Philip Rhinehart, 42.
Shawn Williams, 49, was convicted in January for murder receiving a sentence of 65 years and is incarcerated at Miami Correctional Facility.
Chad Kinney, 48, identified in a surveillance photo as the man who shot Rhinehart after Rhinehart answered the door with a “who is it?,” took a plea for his role in the homicide and has yet to be sentenced.
His sentencing is scheduled for January 15, a good week after Beers appears in court for his initial hearing for Level 1 conspiracy to commit murder.
Just after Rhinehart’s death, Beers didn’t totally escape clean handed. He was interviewed by police a couple of weeks later and got angry, telling detectives they didn’t need any more information since they’d already caught the two perpetrators, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Beers did admit to being there: “The defendant stated they heard a knock on the door and the defendant told Rhinehart to open the door. The defendant said no one was there when he opened the door, but right after the defendant heard gunshots.”
Articles written during the January trial for Shawn Williams:
And this story:
Kinney reported that Beers was the one who wanted something “done” to Rhinehart. Beers “caught a case” and blamed his arrest on Rhinehart.
Beers believed that Rhinehart steered police to a gas station where Beers had “nodded out” with a “large amount of Fentanyl, some ‘weed’ and a gun,” court documents said.
And Beers’ assumption wasn’t incorrect. The detective on the Williams case, Liza Anglin, wrote a report confirming that Rhinehart was working with ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), court documents said.
Beers wound up in federal prison charged with the type of felonies and misdemeanors that have dogged him for years - drugs and guns.
His earliest release date from the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Institution is Aug. 13, 2038, according to online information from the federal Bureau of Prisons.
By that time, the 40-year-old will be 52 and could live a quiet life after leaving the penitentiary.
But those plans might be for naught with the new charge.
Beers was often referred to in trial, the elephant in the video to paraphrase, the one identified in video surveillance from across the street with a clear view of the Wells Street apartment next to Il Rinconcito.
The video shows Beers rolling out the suitcase and leaving Rhinehart to die. It was played in court in January at the Williams trial.
Around 6:30 p.m. Christmas night, two friends who came by found Rhinehart and called 9-1-1. They just missed Beers leaving at 6:19. Another man showed up at 6:07 p.m. and went out of the door at 6:17.
Then both Beers and the other man got into a vehicle and left the scene, court documents said.
What were they doing inside the apartment and who was that other man? There’s been no identification yet, but police probably know who he is.
When police arrived, they found Rhinehart down with a bullet wound to his leg and chest. The apartment was clean of drugs and guns, court documents said.
The woman who called police? She died of an overdose, court testimony revealed, possibly on purpose.
That’s the way the case sat until Kinney came forward and wanted to talk.
Shawn Williams (left) in court during his trial; Chad Kinney when he was arrested the day after the homicide.
Kinney said he knew Beers when they did time together and were part of “The Dirty White Boys,” according to a probable cause filed this week.
Kinney had just been released from prison on Dec. 16, 2024 when he became embroiled in a plot to get revenge on Rhinehart for “telling on” Beers, court documents said.
Beers agreed to pay Kinney $1,500 and a couple of “zips” or ounces of Fentanyl, “to do something to” Rhinehart.
Another part of the agreement was that Beers “would take care of him if he ever caught a case and needed legal assistance,” court documents said.
Kinney, rather ungratefully staying at Rhinehart’s trailer and watching Rhinehart’s dog, told detectives the plan was to leave his phone at Rhinehart’s mobile home so he’d have an alibi.
During January’s court testimony, jurors learned that a woman drove Kinney and Williams to the Marathon gas station and alley behind the Wells Street apartment, thinking the two men were involved in a drug deal. A young woman in the van testified in court she heard the shots.
Kinney told police Beers’ interview after the homicide “threw him under the bus,” by not backing up his alibi. He said he didn’t want to kill Rhinehart but “just shoot at him through the door.”
Kinney also related that “Mikey” as he knew him, was sore at Rhinehart for pistol-whipping him. At the Williams trial, the young girl who testified said there was a group of them hanging out at a hotel on Christmas Eve when the pistol-whipping occurred and that Beers was there.
A text another friend found and turned over to Beers seemed to back up the claim that Rhinehart was snitching: “Some of the things (I) have done to help sustain myself from going back behind those barb wire fences and small built cement cells( It )is also what is putting money into my pocket. If anyone ever found out what it was I was doing, I would be looked at as a totally different person. And could be killed because of the decisions I’ve made and things that have happened behind it,” Rhinehart wrote.
Beers told Kinney he found the note “at Phil’s shit,” a word used for residence.
Beers sent a text that he was “ripping and running” when he came to Phil’s house and was sleeping. “I was at Phil’s house when he got shot,” he wrote.
Kinney said Rhinehart and Beers “sold a lot of dope together”, but obviously things took a turn after the pistol-whipping.
“Don’t ever have my name in yo mouth to Phil ever again he’s a hoe and a FORREAL SNITCH,” Beers wrote in a text.
During the January trial, Rhinehart’s mother said her son’s problems came after a construction accident. He was never able to overcome the pain, although he tried.
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