Report: Migrant Marriage Fraud Leads to Murder

Prosecutors charged a former Walmart employee from Haiti with murder after he allegedly waited outside a Pennsylvania store and shot his estranged wife as she left work.

Destino Jean Louis, 23, is accused of killing 45-year-old Latosha Ann Cooper on October 21 in the parking lot of the Walmart in Cheltenham, where both had worked. He faces first- and third-degree murder charges, along with firearms offenses.

Jean Louis and Cooper had been in a romantic relationship. They received a marriage license on March 31, 2025, and married the following month.

Investigators interviewed relatives and former coworkers who said the marriage was intended to help Jean Louis obtain legal status in the United States. Jean Louis had come to the country from Haiti in 2023 through a humanitarian program that was later terminated, according to the affidavit.

Cooper later ended contact with Jean Louis. In July 2026, she withdrew a petition that would have allowed him to remain in the country as her spouse.

The shooting happened at about 11:30 p.m., according to a criminal complaint and probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime. The affidavit says:

[The co-worker] and the victim walked out to their vehicles together and were standing in the parking lot talking. [The co-worker] said she saw a black male … wearing a blue-gray colored thin hooded sweatshirt with the hood up and a mask that covered his face, walk by her. [The co-worker] said the male slowly walked up toward the victim and shot her.

The coworker told investigators she heard what she believed were two or three gunshots and ran back toward the store, where she used her phone to ask employees to unlock the door. She then called 911. Police found Cooper beside her Nissan sedan with a gunshot wound to the head. The gunman fled on foot toward Philadelphia, according to investigators.

Surveillance footage showed the masked man waiting near a bush with a view of the Walmart entrance before Cooper came outside, authorities said. An autopsy determined that she died of multiple gunshot wounds.

One employee told investigators that Jean Louis admitted to physically assaulting Cooper because he felt she had disrespected him. When the employee told him that was wrong, Jean Louis allegedly said such disrespect was not tolerated in his country and that he would do it again.

Employees told investigators that Jean Louis had contacted them about Cooper’s work schedule, something he acknowledged during an interview with detectives after his arrest.

Cellphone records showed multiple trips between Jean Louis’ residence in Philadelphia and the Walmart in the weeks before the shooting and placed his phone near the store at the time of the killing, investigators said.

U.S. marshals arrested Jean Louis on October 23 at a home in Philadelphia on immigration violations. The Marshals Service said he had overstayed his visa and was the main suspect in Cooper’s killing.

During a search of the home, investigators found a bag containing 11 rounds of .22-caliber ammunition, the same caliber as the projectiles recovered from Cooper, according to authorities cited by 6abc.

Jean Louis denied killing Cooper and told detectives he was at the Philadelphia home when she was shot. He also denied ever possessing a firearm. He is being held without bail at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.