On November 8, 2021, a deadly confrontation occurred at the Holiday Inn on Highway 49 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The incident began when Juan Cole, his girlfriend Keeairah Lewis, and an associate named Trenderrious Brock traveled from Texas to Hattiesburg to run an illicit prostitution ring out of their hotel room. During the operation, Lewis was assaulted and robbed by an unidentified client. After a frantic phone call from Lewis, an enraged Cole rushed into the parking lot seeking violent retribution against the attacker.
At that exact moment, 37-year-old Carlos McGruder arrived at the hotel. Although McGruder was there to meet with Lewis, investigators confirmed he was completely unrelated to the robbery and was a victim of tragic mistaken identity. Believing McGruder was the fleeing robber, Cole opened fire, discharging roughly 14 rounds into McGruder’s vehicle as he attempted to leave. McGruder’s car crashed into a nearby building, and as Cole and his crew fled the scene in their own vehicle, Cole fired an additional barrage of bullets into the crashed car. In total, investigators recovered more than a dozen shell casings near the victim’s vehicle.
Following the targeted execution, Cole vanished and successfully absconded from law enforcement for nearly four years. While his co-defendants stayed behind and eventually accepted plea deals—Brock pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2023 and Lewis pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact—Cole remained a fugitive. His run finally came to an end in August 2025 when the U.S. Marshals Service tracked him down and arrested him in Oklahoma.
The case finally went to trial in May 2026, where Cole shockingly took the stand and openly admitted to firing the fatal shots. A Forrest County jury took only 90 minutes to convict the 24-year-old of first-degree murder. Proving he had no remorse, Cole was filmed vaping in the courtroom and flipping off the media before Forrest County Circuit Court Judge T. Michael Reed sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.