NILES Vehicular homicide case sent to grand jury

The suspect did not take the stand during the hearing.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- The man charged with the death of a Youngstown man has been bound over to a Trumbull County grand jury.
Clayton Booker held his head in his hands and sobbed uncontrollably at times while listening to police officers testify during his preliminary hearing Monday morning in Niles Municipal Court.
Booker, 38, who listed the Knights Inn Motel in Liberty as his address, is accused of driving the car that hit and killed 30-year-old Kevin Dietz of Steel Street on Nov. 9.
Booker remains in the Trumbull County jail on a $5,000 bond. He is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Booker did not take the stand during the hearing, at which his attorney, Martin DeMatteis, unsuccessfully argued to have the charges dropped.
Dietz's body was found on Bundy Lane in Weathersfield Township, about 1,500 feet from Salt Springs Road and across the road from LAS Recycling Landfill.
Suspect called 911
Police were called to the scene at 5:17 that morning by Booker, who used his cell phone to dial 911. In the taped conversation, Booker said he pulled onto Bundy Lane to relieve himself and spotted the body.
Booker was not charged until the following Monday.
Trooper Gary Hetzel, of the Southington post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, testified he found acceleration marks in the gravel road that started about 20 feet before Deitz's body.
As Deitz's relatives sat in the audience, wiping away tears, Hetzel also described finding drag marks on the gravel road, noticing a bruise on Deitz that matched the tire tread on Booker's vehicle and finding hairs behind the front tires of the car.
Weathersfield police Capt. Michael Naples testified Booker admitted he had smoked crack cocaine for several hours before the phone call and had driven to the area after leaving a crack house on the East Side of Youngstown only hours earlier.
Victim's relatives
Outside the courtroom, relatives said Deitz was forcibly removed from his home hours before he was killed.
"He never left home without a hat on," said his brother, Zak Baker. "I was the one who saw his picture on the news and I had to go identify him, and he didn't have a hat. He always had a hat whenever he went anywhere. Someone took him out of that home."
Another brother, Bill Mock, said he had dropped Deitz off at home, where he planned to baby-sit his 18-month-old daughter, around 5 p.m. Friday night.
"That's the last time I saw him," he said.
The daughter was found by Youngstown police about midnight that night, wandering around in yards on Lee Avenue, wearing only a diaper. The girl is in the custody of Children Services, family members said.
slshaulis@vindy.com