Derrick Peete murder trial in Warren pushed back

Staff report

WARREN

The Derrick Peete murder trial, which was supposed to start Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, has been pushed back.

Peete is one of two men charged with aggravated murder in the Nov. 11, 2012, death of Marco Dukes, 32, of Warren. In addition to Peete, 23, Michael Hatch, 27, also is charged in the death. Both men are from Detroit but also have lived in Warren.

They are accused of killing Dukes in a gunbattle behind an apartment house on Elm Road near downtown on a Sunday morning near several prominent restaurants and churches.

Peete’s attorney, Heidi Hanni, was unsuccessful in getting the trial date moved in mid-October, when she asked Judge Ronald Rice for a delay based on Peete also having a federal case pending.

But Hanni filed another motion Thursday in which she asked for the trial to be moved back because her mother is terminally ill.

Judge Rice did not rule on the motion, but court records indicate the trial will not begin Tuesday, and a pretrial hearing will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile, another recent filing in the case indicates police recovered the murder weapon involved in the Dukes killing in the possession of another Detroit man.

On Oct. 23, in anticipation of the trial starting next week, Chris Becker, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, asked Judge Rice for an order compelling James Cohen, 25, to be brought to Warren for the trial.

Cohen is in a Michigan prison serving a sentence of 25 to 35 years on a murder conviction in the Detroit area. He was convicted of killing Glenn Walker in Detroit in October 2012. Walker had been shot 22 times.

Cohen also is scheduled for another trial in Detroit in December, also on a murder charge. He is accused of killing Todd Eiland, 31, of Detroit. Eiland suffered 29 gunshot wounds.

Warren police reports from last year showed that Cohen and Peete associated in Warren in late 2012, just before to the Dukes killing.

On Nov. 2, agents with the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitives Task Force made a traffic stop on Peete and Cohen on Hazelwood Street in Warren after observing Peete driving at high speed. They found them with more than $12,000 in cash.

Marshals charged Cohen with falsification after he gave them a false name and said he didn’t have identification. Police charged Peete with driving on a suspended license and traffic violations. Peete and Cohen both had criminal records out of Detroit — Peete for drug charges and Cohen for weapons charges.

Cohen will be a witness in the trial, Becker said, because he “was transporting back to Detroit the firearm that has been forensically proven to be the murder weapon in this case.”