Woman’s ex accused of sending video of her body in plot to frame man for her murder

The Ohio man charged with fatally stabbing a woman he described as his “soulmate” shared a video from a fake social media account that showed the victim’s lifeless body in an effort to frame another man for the killing, court records obtained Friday show.

The video, sent via Facebook, lasted five seconds and included R&B singer Chris Brown’s “Stutter” playing in the background, according to a probable cause affidavit from a detective in Jefferson County, Indiana.

The message was one of several that authorities accused Nigel Thomas, 34, of sending in an in elaborate plot to frame the other man, Shawn Bailey, for the murder of Wilma Robertson.

The messages were sent to Robertson’s relatives and people associated with her, according to the affidavit.

The messages showed Bailey appearing to admit killing Robertson last month, the affidavit states.

Bailey, who had dated Robertson, was arrested in connection with her murder on April 15, shortly after the Facebook video was shared with the girlfriend of Robertson’s ex-husband, according to the affidavit. A message sent to the girlfriend indicated that Bailey had done the ex-husband “a favor” and he no longer had to worry about Robertson, the affidavit states.

Bailey, 33, remained in jail until April 25, the Jefferson County Prosecutor’s Office said earlier this week.

Bailey did not respond to a request for comment. A lawyer for Thomas, who made his initial appearance in an Indiana courtroom Friday, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Thomas was charged with one count of felony murder and one count of obstruction of justice.

“It seems that he has absolutely no remorse whatsoever,” Robertson’s cousin, Kimberly Danner, said of Thomas in an interview. “It’s super insulting.”

Danner grew up with her cousin in Kentucky and said the two were more like sisters. She described Robertson, a certified nursing assistant and mother of two, as a free spirit who had a knack for making people laugh.

Danner said her cousin met Thomas after she separated from her ex-husband a few years ago.

Initially, Danner recalled, Robertson said that Thomas — a rapper who went by “Nati Bang” — “understood her like nobody else.” He wrote a love song about her, “A Girl Named Wilma,” that remains online, she said.

The couple went to California, Danner said, though their relationship became “toxic” and in January 2024, Robertson returned to Kentucky, Danner said.

“When she got back, she was just on this healing journey,” Danner recalled. “She wanted to come back, get her life on track, get her kids and take them back to California.”

Initially, Danner said, she spoke regularly to her cousin. But Robertson went silent roughly a year ago for reasons that remain unclear, Danner said.

According to the affidavit, authorities believe Robertson was killed on April 11 or 12 at her home in Hanover, Indiana. Her body was discovered on April 14 in a utility room. Two stab wounds were found in her back, the affidavit states.

Danner learned of her cousin’s death on April 14, she said, though initially her family had no details about what happened. Later that night, she said, the video showing Robertson’s body was seen by her ex-husband when his girlfriend received it.

That, Danner said, “is when we knew what had happened to her.”

After Bailey’s April 15 arrest, he denied taking video of Robertson’s body or sending messages, the affidavit states. He told authorities he’d been roughly 40 miles away, in Louisville, Kentucky, at the time of her death.

A day later, Danner said she, too, received a Facebook message from someone purporting to be Shawn Bailey. Robertson’s sister had also received a message from the supposed Shawn Bailey on Instagram, according to the affidavit, but by then, Danner said, she’d learned of Bailey’s arrest and knew the messages were probably fake.

“I immediately knew it was Nati,” she said, noting that she was on the phone with a detective at the time discussing Bailey’s arrest. “I was like, ‘Let me tell you about this other guy she used to date.'”

The affidavit cites dozens of messages posted on Thomas’ Facebook profile about Robertson in the days after her death, some of which describe her as Thomas’ “soulmate.”

Several of the messages tag Robertson’s family. One, posted April 23, says: “THEY TOOK THE ONLY ONE I REALLY TRUST SHE KNOWS ALL MY PAIN OF WHAT MY FAMILY DONE TO ME ITS WAR OVER YOU!!!!!”

Investigators later confirmed Shawn Bailey’s alibi, according to the affidavit, and they discovered that the Shawn Bailey Facebook account was accessed by an IP address in Oxford, Ohio, while Bailey was incarcerated in Louisville. DNA found on the handle of a bloody knife at the crime scene excluded Bailey as a suspect, according to the affidavit, but showed a “moderate” match to Thomas.

Thomas, who lived in Oxford, was arrested April 25, the same day Bailey was released, according to the Jefferson County Prosecutor’s Office.

For Danner, Thomas’ arrest forced her to finally confront her cousin’s death.

“That was probably the first time that I finally, really accepted that she was gone,” Danner said. At Robertson’s funeral, she said, “it didn’t feel like she was at peace at all. I feel it’s because they had arrested the wrong person.”