The Haywood Case – Current True Crime
By: Nitzaliah Festinger
This week, a man named Terrance Haywood received a sentence to life imprisonment for the first-degree premeditated murder of his roommate, Cole Campbell.
On February 2nd, 2022, Cole Campbell’s mother was unable to get in touch with her son, so she requested the police to do a welfare check. When police arrived, they found blood all over the house and multiple machetes on the floor. Terrance Haywood described his dream from the night, claiming that in the dream, he was chasing his roommate with a machete. He said he chased him to Mitson Boulevard. When police went there, they found Cole Campbell’s frozen body.
On February 1st, Cole Campbell met with the police to report his roommate’s strange activity. He claimed that Terrence had been walking around the house swinging his machete and claiming he was God for 48 hours. Campbell had also told his mother and ex-girlfriend about this strange behavior he had witnessed.
During his trial, Haywood pleaded guilty and testified that he had been receiving text messages instructing him to kill Campbell. He said that he had been receiving these messages for months, and the messages threatened that if he did not kill Campbell, his ex-girlfriend, and their children would suffer. The prosecutor’s office reported that Terrence Haywood revealed he told Cole Campbell what was happening and requested that Campbell kill him instead. When Campbell refused, Haywood picked up the machete and killed him. He believed it was his only choice.
Prosecutor David Layton says, “This was one of the more unusual homicide cases given the way the weapon was used, and the events unfolded.” he’s seen. The autopsy confirmed that Campbell had died from multiple machete strikes. Terrence Haywood is scheduled to begin his sentence on October 27th.
Sources:
https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/michigan-man-found-guilty-in-2022-stabbing-of-his-roommate/
https://truecrimenews.com/2025/10/02/man-convicted-of-killing-his-roommate-with-a-machete-michigan-terrence-joseph-haywood/
https://wwmt.com/news/state/flint-twp-man-found-guilty-of-murdering-his-roommate-with-a-machete
https://www.wnem.com/2025/10/02/jury-finds-man-guilty-murdering-roommate-with-machete/