'Dateline NBC': Who killed DJ Nando? Atlanta rapper Jeezy weighs in on 'club' killing of one of his 'great' friends
MORROW, GEORGIA: 'Dateline' will air a strange case at 9 pm on Friday, May 10 in an episode titled 'Sound and Fury'. Rapper Jeezy is one of the individuals interviewed for the show, which also included conversations with family members.
DJ Nando, a DJ for Club Onyx, was shot and murdered in front of his Clayton County house in January 2014. William "Fernando" Barnes, 38, was shot in the head shortly after getting home from work, according to authorities.
DJ Nando was pals with rapper Jeezy, who recounts his demise in the 'Dateline' segment. Though authorities suspected a link between the two instances, no arrests were made in connection with Fernando's killing.
How did DJ Nando die?
The girlfriend of a prominent Atlanta DJ killed in front of his home this week described how she cradled the dying man's head while hastily delivering first aid with the assistance of 911 operators. Shonté Renee stared helplessly as DJ Nando breathed his last in the driveway of their Morrow home early.
DJ Nando, a well-known Atlanta hip-hop DJ, died after being shot outside his house in Georgia. Nando was reportedly tragically murdered outside his Clayton County house early this morning.
The specifics aren't fully clear; first, it was rumored that Nando died in a vehicle accident, but these allegations proved to be untrue. According to RollingOut, authorities said Nando was shot in the head and discovered dead outside his home at 4 am.
Police have not provided a motive or suspects in the shooting as of yet. DJ Nando worked at prominent clubs in Atlanta, including Magic City and Onyx, and was a member of the Coalition DJs.
What happened to Tiffany Jackson Pugh?
"Knowing that her kids were in the house said to me there was no heart, no regard for life," Tiffany Pugh's pal says in an upcoming 'Dateline' episode. "A monster."
Andre Pugh, also known as DJ Awesome, discovered his wife Tiffany, 30, dead from gunshot wounds on November 23, 2014, at approximately six in the morning in their East Point residence. When the first responders came, one of the couple's tiny children was straddling her chest, "trying to wake her up."
"Mommy. No mommy. Please!" An officer overheard her two-year-old crying.
When an East Point officer arrived at the house, he discovered Andre outside, swinging his arms and saying, "My kids are in there. She is not picking up the phone." Tiffany, a rising star in Delta Airlines' profession, sustained bullet wounds to her body and eye. A third bullet had struck a wall.
Tiffany had passed away, according to the medical examiner, just before the cops arrived. The wounds' stippling suggested that the rounds were fired at close range.
There were no shot casings located at the crime site, but authorities discovered a cut window screen in a downstairs room, indicating that it was the shooter's access point. Initially, police suspected the murder was the result of a botched house invasion.
However, they determined that no valuables had been stolen. The person went "straight to Tiffany's room, shoot her and then leave," said Pat Dutcher, Chief Deputy District Attorney for Fulton County.
Investigations lead to connections between Tiffany Jackson Pugh and DJ Nando murder cases
The crime scene team was unable to obtain fingerprints, and the home's CCTV cameras yielded no meaningful evidence. Fortunately, an adjacent residence's security camera captured footage of the Pugh house, indicating that a car had circled the block at about 4:45 am.
According to Simone Hylton, Fulton County Deputy District Attorney, it was also spotted parked in front of the property for an extended period of time. The timing coincided with the moment of the murder.
Although the camera did not capture an image of a human or a license plate, it did disclose that the automobile was black and had a light out on the driver's side. Detectives contacted the victim's husband, Andre, for further information.
He stated that he received a call between 5:30 and 5:45 am notifying him that an alarm had gone off at his residence. He claimed he wanted to know if the police had been alerted.
"At that point, I called my wife," he told police in a taped statement. "Called three times, and she didn’t answer. This is painful. This is hurtful."
Andre stated he was working at Club Onyx the night Tiffany was slain, which was corroborated by the club manager, who also mentioned that a Club Onyx DJ had been killed a few months prior. The victim, DJ Nando, was well-known in Atlanta.
Detectives investigated parallels between the two incidents. Tiffany and DJ Nando had both been shot in the head and were linked to Club Onyx and Andre Pugh.
However, Nando was shot after stepping out of his car. According to Pat, a masked guy approached and shot him directly in his driveway.
Similarly, authorities assumed the murder was connected to a robbery, yet Nando had cash and jewelry on him. "It wasn't a robbery," claimed MZ Shyneka, the radio DJ for Yung Joc & The Streetz.
"It was an ambush. It was a hi." According to 'The Real Murders of Atlanta', detectives were ultimately unable to link the deejay's death to Tiffany's murder.
Andre Pugh hired best man from his wedding to murder his wife
Investigators concentrated on Delta Airlines, hoping that Tiffany's coworkers might give a tip. Detectives concluded from their interviews that Tiffany was a career-oriented mother with no adversaries.
Tiffany's close friends and coworkers, however, reported that she was having major marital issues. Tiffany was just about to divorce him and go on with her life when she was murdered, according to 'The Real Murders of Atlanta'.
Detectives were startled since Andre had shown no signs of problems prior to the marriage. His omission raised a red flag.
Andre was hauled back in by detectives to be questioned about his marriage. Andre finally realized they had problems and were working to solve them.
But as the contradictions piled up, detectives became increasingly skeptical. They obtained a warrant for his cell phone.
The phone records indicated a significant breach in the marriage. "He was kind of begging her not to leave him," investigators say.
However, he was in contact with other women to arrange sexual meetings while Tiffany was away. "He was sexting them and exchanging lewd photographs," Pat claimed. Investigators dug into the couple's bank records in search of a potential clue. They decided Tiffany was the primary breadwinner in the household.
"When Tiffany was going to move out, Andre was trying to figure out how he could switch the mortgage into his name," according to the investigators. "But the bank wouldn't do it because he didn't have credit."
Andre was determined to keep the property, which was a prestige symbol, providing the police with a possible financial motivation. Andre had an alibi for his location at the time of the murder, but someone may have fired the trigger for him.
Investigators examined Andre's telephone records. According to East Point Police Department Captain Allyn Glover, they discovered that he was communicating with his closest buddy, Adrian Earl Harley, only seconds before Tiffany was murdered.
When police asked Adrian where he was on the night of the murder, he offered several locations and then became confrontational when investigators demanded his mobile phone. Adrian's mobile phone records showed that he was near the Pugh residence when Tiffany was slain.
When they checked Adrian's black automobile, they discovered a light out on the driver's side. Andre was suspected of arranging the killings.
Harley, who had been a pallbearer at Tiffany's burial, was suspected of firing the trigger. On December 5, 2014, both males were detained at Club Onyx.
Andre denied any culpability and said that Adrian had confessed to him about the crime.
"Andre told police that Tiffany owed Adrian some money," Pat stated. "That's why Adrian had murdered her."
When detectives questioned Adrian, he promptly called for a lawyer, thereby ending the interview. Andre was tried and convicted of murdering his wife in September 2018.
He received a life sentence in jail. Harley was found guilty in October 2022 and given a life sentence.
Adrian stood alongside Andre at the wedding of the Atlanta DJ. Prosecutors concluded that years later, Andre once again overcame his best man, but this time for a sinister assignment.
Rapper Jeezy owes his career to late DJ Nando
In an interview with Rolling Stones in 2020, Jeezy stated, "I have a history there (Magic City); my career was started there by Magic (Michael “Magic” Barney, the club’s owner) and DJ Nando, who was one of my great friends who was murdered."
"Fernando was the one who broke my records and was the one who told me to slow down and get off the streets before I was murdered. His presence was there, he would have told me to do that show exactly the way I did."
Nando had been working downtown at Magic City for two years, a now-famous establishment that had welcomed not just hip-hop and R&B stars, but also great sportsmen such as Michael Jordan. Nando was still working the "day" shift from 3 to 9 pm.
Jay Jenkins had one album under the name Lil' J, but now he goes by Young Jeezy. He met his then-manager, Kevin "Coach K" Lee, at Magic City, who frequently requested Nando's assistance in breaking upcoming songs like the Bun B-featuring "Over Here."
Two years after meeting Nando, Jeezy signed with Def Jam. However, the label was not convinced of his star potential. LA Reid had not seen him clubbing with Black Mafia Family cocaine kingpin Big Meech, listening to his music at each stop.
Trap wasn't a well-known genre yet. So, in 2005, label executives and radio programmers came down south to witness Monday night's action.
The 800-person crowd overflowed into the parking lot. Dancers, bouncers, and hustlers repeated every line of Jeezy's mixtape 'Trap or Die', which was played in its entirety.
This wasn't a popular audience, but it was a cult following that brought the rain. At one point, Nando turned off the music.
It's time to put this scenario into perspective.