Indiana man accused in fatal shooting made video of himself loading ammo in gun

IOWA CITY — Iowa City police investigators testified Friday about cellphone and camera evidence that led them to Renard Winfield Jr. in the 2021 slaying of Tommy Curry, including a video Winfield made of himself loading distinctive ammunition into a handgun.

Winfield, 32, of Gary, Ind., is on trial this week in Johnson County District Court, charged with first-degree murder in the April 28, 2021, slaying of Curry, 31, of Iowa City, in an Iowa City apartment complex’s parking lot.

The prosecution will continue its case Monday, and the defense could start late Monday or Tuesday.

Prosecutors say Winfield shot Curry as an act of revenge after Curry allegedly shot Winfield in June 2020, though no one was arrested in that shooting because Winfield wouldn’t identify his shooter.

Iowa City police Detective Mike Smithey, who testified Friday, said Winfield made the video of himself loading a Smith & Wesson 9 mm handgun with new “higher quality and more powerful” ammunition just after he bought the bullets at Scheels in Coralville.

Using cellphone data, Smithey said he determined the video was made in the parking lot outside the store on April 23, 2021 — five days before Curry was slain.

Cellphone analysis

Smithey, who is certified as an expert witness in cellphone extraction and analysis for state and federal court, testified the cellphone data and email information taken from Curry’s and Winfield’s phones led police to discover Winfield, posing as a woman, had been contacting Curry through an online dating site, Plenty of Fish.

Smithey identified text messages between Winfield, using a pseudonym, and Curry, also using another name, but investigators tracked both fictitious names back to each man’s accounts and phones.

Smithey said he recognized Winfield’s email address under the fake name from the 2020 case when Winfield was shot.

He said investigators obtained a search warrant for Google, which authenticated the email accounts and other internet activity.

Through the Google warrant, investigators also looked at Winfield’s internet activity after the shooting. They found a few searches of the Iowa City police activity logs and multiple searches of television and newspaper websites of shootings in Iowa City. Some searches were made April 29, the day after Curry was shot and killed.

Winfield also searched the “2400 block of Lakeside Drive,” where the fatal shooting happened.

Also on April 29, Winfield searched how to change his “Straight Talk” phone number, which he changed shortly after the shooting, Smithey said.

The last searches for news articles were on April 30, which is when police served the Google warrant.

SUV tracked

Smithey said investigators identified Winfield as the one driving a white Dodge Journey SUV from the scene after Curry’s slaying.

The SUV, registered to Winfield’s mother in Gary, Ind., was distinct, with black tire rims, dark side mirrors and a red tag dealership plate on the front and a temporary license plate on the back, he said.

Investigators obtained surveillance videos from homes and businesses and traffic cameras to show Winfield leaving the apartment complex in the SUV about 8:03 p.m. April 28, 2021.

Smithey said investigators obtained search warrants in Gary, Ind., and had Indiana police check Winfield’s mother’s home for the SUV and to see if Winfield was there. Both Winfield and the SUV were there.

Other officers previously testified about finding evidence of ammunition and receipts to show Winfield had been in Iowa City.

Text messages

In earlier testimony, Iowa City police Sgt. Eric Nieland, who was co-lead investigator in the case, testified about the text messages exchanged between Winfield, posing as a woman, and Curry, on April 28, 2021.

Those messages showed Curry was planning to meet the “woman” in Iowa City and seemed to be driving around, waiting on a meeting spot for his “date,” according to the messages.

Winfield, posing as that date, eventually texted Curry to meet at an apartment in the Meadow Lark Apartment Complex, 2470 Lakeside Dr.

Curry then texted where he’d parked and asked the woman to come outside. That text, sent at 8:01 p.m., was the last text Curry sent before he was shot multiple times while sitting in his car.

Nieland said Winfield used an internet phone number when he was communicating with Curry and deactivated the number at 8:16 p.m. April 28, 2021, about 11 minutes after people called 911 about shots fired at the apartment complex.

In other testimony, two Scheels employees testified about receipts of ammunition and security footage from the store that showed Winfield buying the higher quality Federal-brand 9 mm bullets on April 23, 2021. The store also had outdoor cameras showing Winfield getting out of the white SUV and coming into the store.

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