Warren police investigate third homicide of 2013


By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Police are investigating the third homicide of 2013, the stabbing of a 49-year-old man found Monday in his home on Williamsburg Street Northwest.

Friends of Dwayne Hickman, 3403 Williamsburg, called police Monday after not hearing from him in a while, and police found him dead at 9:57 a.m.

He’d been stabbed multiple times, and his car was missing.

Hickman had last been seen alive March 17, but police don’t believe he’s been dead that long, said Lt. Jeff Cole of the Warren Police Department.

Police don’t know whether his missing 2001 white Chevrolet Malibu valued at about $2,500 is related to the homicide, but they have filed a stolen-car report, Cole said.

Warren police began to investigate the second homicide of the year last Wednesday, finding Rodney Fletcher, 45, dead of a gunshot wound of the neck at his house on Second Street Southwest.

No arrests have been made in either case.

Hickman had no felony criminal cases in Trumbull County, though he was charged with felony drug possession in September 2007 along with several other charges.

The charges later were reduced in Central District Court in Cortland to misdemeanor drug abuse and criminal damaging.

He was placed on probation for a year and ordered to pay a fine and restitution.

The charges stemmed from a car accident on Hoagland Blackstub Road in Mecca Township in which he was a passenger.

Police said they found marijuana and pills in the vehicle.

That same day, he was identified as the person who slashed the tires on several vehicles at a house near the accident scene.

Hickman was convicted in 2003 of misdemeanor having weapons while intoxicated and in 2009 of misdemeanor drug possession.

He’s been living on Williamsburg Street since at least 1998, when he was convicted of disorderly conduct.