‘Beautiful soul’: Family IDs woman shot, killed by boyfriend in North Las Vegas

The family of a woman who police said was shot and killed by her boyfriend on Sunday packed a North Las Vegas courtroom Tuesday morning for the suspect’s hearing.

Prosecutors said in court Tuesday that autopsy information showed that the man accused of killing his girlfriend shot her four times in the back of her head.

Markeem Benson, 29, appeared virtually at a North Las Vegas Justice Court hearing after the North Las Vegas Police Department arrested him on Sunday.

According to Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Jobe, Benson has two prior convictions for home invasion and attempted robbery, for which he was placed on probation on Nov. 14 of this year.

Justice of the Peace Belinda Harris said Benson would continue to be held without bail until his next court appearance on Thursday.

Family members of Renise “NeNe” Wolfe, 33, whose name was provided by her family, flooded the courtroom on the morning of Christmas Eve. The Clark County coroner’s office confirmed that Wolfe was the victim of Sunday’s fatal shooting.

“Christmas Eve is the day that we always get together as a family,” said Tracy Coleman, Wolfe’s mother. “The day before she was killed, I was driving home and I was just saying, ‘Lord, thank you for all these blessings I have. My kids are all happy. My kids are all well, and this is gonna be the best Christmas ever.’”

‘My daughter was wonderful’

In September, Coleman took her three daughters on a trip to Disneyland. She said it was the first opportunity the four women had to spend time together as adults.

“I’m so glad, because how did we know that somebody was going to take her life?” Coleman asked.

When Benson appeared on screen for his hearing Tuesday, Wolfe’s family gasped. Jobe’s account of the shooting drove some to tears.

After the hearing, the family gathered in the foyer of North Las Vegas Justice Court.

“People always say when somebody passes, ‘they were so wonderful.’ But my daughter was wonderful,” Coleman said.

Wolfe worked as a tattoo artist in the Arts District. Since her death, Coleman said that people her daughter had tattooed have been reaching out to say how she touched their lives.

“She had tattoos all over,” Coleman said. “It was an art for her, and she wanted to do this her whole life.”

Wolfe, who was called NeNe by her family, bought her first tattoo gun without knowing what she was doing, her mother said. Her sister, Ashley Tuttle, 38, said her younger sister practiced her tattoos on oranges.

Coleman has three hearts inked on her leg, representing her three daughters. Wolfe was the artist behind the work. “She did that for my three girls, and now one of them is gone,” Coleman said.

Wolfe’s relationship with Benson

The night before Wolfe was found dead in an apartment complex in the 100 block of East Rome Boulevard, she and Benson attended a family holiday party, Coleman said.

When it was time to leave, she remembered Benson walked Coleman to her car, saying “I don’t want you walking out in the dark, mom.”

Coleman asked Benson to “please get my daughter home safe.” He said, “I’ll get her home safe. I’ll take care of her, I promise,” according to Coleman.

“That’s how he took care of her,” Coleman said. When she was allowed into her daughter’s apartment, she said she “cleaned up my daughter’s blood.”

Wolfe’s family said she seemed happy in her relationship with Benson.

“He makes you really trust him,” Coleman said. Friends of Wolfe later told the family that he would often watch her work at her tattoo studio.

Coleman said she tried to embrace the people in her daughter’s life.

“I tried to make her happy by accepting people,” she said, “because she accepted everybody.”

She said she didn’t hear any concerning information about her daughter’s new boyfriend until it was too late.

The family plans on attending all of Benson’s hearings. “We’ll be here every single time,” Tuttle said.

‘I just wanted to be like my sister’

Art is a family affair for Wolfe and her loved ones.

Wolfe’s dad, retired Metropolitan Police Department officer Robert Wolfe, was an artist in school, Coleman said. When he showed his daughter his artwork, “that’s how it all started,” she added.

NeNe Wolfe’s younger sister Raygan Wolfe, 26, is a makeup artist. She also draws and paints, a passion that she said she inherited from her older sister. “I just wanted to be like my sister,” Raygan Wolfe said.

Growing up, the three of them would have pretend tea parties together, Tuttle remembered. “We’d have tap water as our tea,” she said, and they would eat bologna. “We loved our bologna tea parties.”

“She protected her sisters,” Coleman said of her daughter. She said she had always envisioned the three sisters being around to support eachother. “She was a beautiful soul.”

Coleman said her family isn’t planning on celebrating the holidays this year after losing Wolfe.

“All her presents are under the tree,” she said.

Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @estellelilym on X and @estelleatkinson.bsky.social on Bluesky.