Affidavit: WSU homicide victim contacted accused killer through adult online ad

Rayan Ibrahim Baba, the victim of an August homicide on the Wichita State University campus, had contacted Eboni Fingal about 30 minutes before his death about sexual services she had advertised online, according to a probable cause affidavit released Wednesday.

Fingal, 20, and Isaiah Copridge, 23, have both been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the Aug. 8 homicide.

Baba was found lying in the parking lot of WSU’s Fairmount Towers dormitory at about 6:30 a.m. Aug. 8, with multiple gunshot wounds, according to the affidavit.

Baba was a 23-year-old undergraduate student from Saudia Arabia. WSU officials have said he was not enrolled for the fall 2015 semester and was preparing to move out of Fairmount Towers when he was shot.

Police were able to track cellphone locations from the suspects, which, along with surveillance video, pinpointed Fingal, Copridge and Baba together in the dormitory parking lot around 5:30 that morning, the affidavit said.

The homicide was the first on WSU’s campus since 1993.

According to the affidavit, which is based on sworn testimony gathered from police interviews, the narrative is as follows:

Initial contact

Baba first came into contact with Fingal in early to mid-July through a listing on the website Backpage.com. Backpage is an online classifieds site similar to Craigslist.

Fingal’s cousin also has a listing on the site, and she would occasionally send Fingal some of her “customers” to “help make some money.”

One of those customers was Baba, whom Fingal first met at the Braum’s on North Rock Road. The two had a sexual encounter in the parking lot.

On the morning of his death, Baba called on a Backpage “Female Escorts” listing titled “BirthDay Beauty.” The number he called was later identified as one used by Fingal, who had purchased the phone card at Walmart on Aug. 5.

Baba came into contact with Fingal again on Aug. 7, the day before his death.

Fingal told police she had been smoking marijuana at her mother’s house on North Spruce and had then walked to a store at Central and Estelle. After leaving the store, she encountered Baba in the parking lot, who called her Courtney, “which is her prostitute name.”

Baba gave Fingal a ride back to her mother’s house, and before she left the car, she asked to purchase marijuana from Baba. He sold her two grams for $25.

She took the marijuana back to her front porch, where her mother and Copridge were waiting. Copridge told her the amount “looked light.”

He approached Baba’s car, and after talking with him, Baba gave him “a small amount of marijuana to add to the drugs previously purchased.”

Baba spent the afternoon of Aug. 7 and early morning hours of Aug. 8 with friends, according to police interviews with those friends.

He went to a night club in the Old Town area, then to a friend’s apartment, another party, and another friend’s apartment before returning to Fairmount Towers around 4:06 a.m. Aug. 8, according to his card key used to enter the parking lot.

Morning of the murder

Shortly after 5 a.m., Baba was searching through Backpage when he found the “BirthDay Beauty” listing. He called the associated number two times between 5 and 5:03 a.m. Aug. 8.

Fingal told police she was meeting with men in connection with her Backpage listing that weekend, and she was working out of a hotel on East Kellogg.

She was allegedly driving a green Ford Taurus that she denied owning. She also claimed that she had activated the Walmart phone card for a friend, but she could not explain to police why that friend would be in contact with Baba.

Police were later able to track the locations of a cellphone Fingal claimed to share with Copridge, and Fingal’s Backpage cellphone.

The records show that, after she received Baba’s call, the two phones were tracked traveling east on Kellogg to Rock Road, where they were tracked heading north.

The green Ford Taurus pulled into QuikTrip at Douglas and Rock at 5:10 a.m., and surveillance video shows Fingal getting out of the driver’s seat and entering the store. In the footage, another person was seen sitting in the passenger seat.

The car left QuikTrip at 5:13 a.m. and turned to the north on Rock Road.

Records tracked the phones traveling north on Rock to 21st Street, where they turned west until they were in the area of the Fairmount Towers parking lot.

Baba’s phone received four incoming calls from the Backpage phone between 5:23 and 5:32 a.m.

Tracking the phones

A WSU police officer sitting in his car at the corner of 22nd and Hillside reported hearing gunshots around 5:25 a.m. The entrance to the Fairmount Towers parking lot is just west of Hillside on 22nd Street.

When the officer got out of his car to look around, he saw a Ford Taurus drive east on 22nd Street before turning south on Hillside.

After reviewing footage from his police car, the officer confirmed the car he saw was a dark-colored Ford Taurus that turned south on Hillside at about 5:27 a.m.

Wichita State Police said a card used to access the parking lot, registered to Baba, was used “numerous times” between 5:28 and 5:29 a.m.

The phone Fingal claimed she and Copridge shared received texts from the Backpage phone from 5:30 to 5:32 a.m. The texts read: “Walk to here.” “Hurry.” “By the gate.”

The two phones and Baba’s phone were tracked in the Fairmount Towers parking lot area until around 5:35 a.m., when the Backpage phone and Baba’s phone were turned off.

The shared phone then left the area, according to the affidavit.

Baba was found in the parking lot shortly before 6:30 a.m., his feet still in the driver’s side of the car, and his body in the parking lot. Police said at the time someone driving to work called 911.

Baba was pronounced dead at Wesley Medical Center around 7 a.m.

Copridge’s mother said he was at her house by 8 that morning.

Officers found the green Ford Taurus in the parking lot of Copridge’s brother’s apartment complex. After obtaining a search warrant, officers noticed a strong scent of bleach in the car “and that the car had been wiped down on the inside.”

Detectives found that Baba had withdrawn $800 from a bank on the afternoon of Aug. 7. He paid $600 in fees to WSU, which should have left him with $200.

Police found $40 in his rear pocket. His cellphone, which was turned off at 5:32 a.m. Aug. 8, was missing. It has not yet been located.

Fingal and Copridge, who are both charged with first-degree murder and aggravated robbery, are scheduled for a preliminary hearing Jan. 7.

This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 8:10 PM with the headline "Affidavit: WSU homicide victim contacted accused killer through adult online ad."