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Detective's Work Pays Off With Arrest

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By LISA A. DAVIS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 26, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - After two Wesley Chapel teens were gunned down on a dirt road two years ago in Trilby, one of the first and most publicized names to surface as a person of interest to the sheriff's office was Jeremy Hanson Henry.

But Henry, 20, soon turned up dead, and since then the investigation into the deaths of Derek James Pieper and Raymond Alphonse Veluz mostly had been mum.

Until now. On Friday, Pasco County sheriff's Detective Lisa Schoneman said she has tirelessly worked the case since the slayings, and it has been almost that long since detectives ruled out Henry as the killer.

On Aug. 10, 2006, Henry called Detective Stephen Foshay and told him he didn't have anything to do with the killings of Pieper, 17, and Veluz, 18, on July 28, 2006. He then pointed to Tyree Jenkins and Luc Pierre-Charles as the triggermen, Schoneman said.

Back then, detectives questioned Jenkins, who denied involvement, but didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest. Pierre-Charles refused to speak to detectives, Schoneman said.
Schoneman finally got the evidence she needed to secure first-degree murder warrants Thursday for Jenkins, 22, and Pierre-Charles, 20.

"We have tried endlessly for two years to develop witnesses in this case but they were reluctant out of fear," Schoneman said.

After a judge signed off on the warrants, Schoneman drove the paperwork to the warrants division at the Land O' Lakes Jail. She then drove back to her office in New Port Richey and wasn't back in the door five minutes when the phone rang saying Jenkins had been picked up on the warrant in Hillsborough County

"What are the chances?" Schoneman said. "When I got the phone call, I thought it was a mistake. ... I thought there was no way it happened that quickly."

Jenkins was being held without bail at Orient Road Jail in Tampa on Friday.

Pierre-Charles Escaped From Deputy

The arrest of Pierre-Charles might be trickier. He already slipped through Pasco deputies' fingers once.

In May, a Pasco deputy noticed a headlight out on a red Toyota and pulled over the driver: Pierre-Charles. As is routine, Deputy Leonard Grudzinski checked Pierre-Charles' driver's license through the criminal system and learned Pierre-Charles had a warrant on charges of burglary and aggravated assault out of Polk County.

Grudzinski escorted Pierre-Charles to the back seat of his cruiser while he confirmed the warrant and then patted him down, according to a report.

Pierre-Charles had been cooperating with the deputy, the report states. Once the warrant was confirmed, the deputy told Pierre-Charles he was under arrest and asked him to pass his cell phone through the window to a friend who had been with him in the car.

Pierre-Charles then unlocked and tried to open the door, struggling with Grudzinski. The deputy repeatedly hit Pierre-Charles' forearm and elbow with his flashlight but Pierre-Charles climbed out of the window, forcing the deputy away, the report states.

Pierre-Charles was struck with a Taser, fell to the ground but ran away after the electrical shocks stopped, according to the deputy's report. Police dogs couldn't track him, and he's been on the lam since, Schoneman said.

"He's a dangerous man," the detective said of Pierre-Charles. "He carries a gun."

Both men, she said, are persons of interest in several counties for serious crimes, but she declined to elaborate.

Pieper Was 'Typical 17-Year-Old'

Pieper, a Wesley Chapel High student, apparently met Pierre-Charles, Jenkins and their associates during school functions, Schoneman said.

"Derek was a typical 17-year-old kid," she said. "He had a car with no money to put in his gas tank."

He would give some of the teens rides and get cash in exchange, she said. But he got involved in something bigger than he realized, Schoneman said.

Two weeks before the teens were gunned down on the road northwest of Dade City, Pieper attended a school program, "Making the Right Choice," which included a video about getting involved with gangs and other poor choices teenagers should avoid.

Pieper approached Detective Mike Jenkins after the presentation.

He told him he was involved with people who were selling drugs and he was scared, Schoneman said. Jenkins warned him not to associate with them anymore. But on July 28, 2006, Pieper was at a party and Veluz asked him if he could hook him up with marijuana, Schoneman said.

They left the party. A Harris Hill Road resident driving to work discovered their bodies in the road the next morning.

"I believe Derek was executed because he refused to do what they wanted him to do," Schoneman said. "The other one was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The death of Henry, the original person of interest in the slaying, is also linked to the teens' killing.

"The reason he was killed was because he was coming forward with information," Schoneman said.

Commie Lateel Pattmon, now 26, was arrested in September 2006 on a first-degree murder charge in Henry's shooting. According to Schoneman, Pattmon is a known associate of Jenkins and Pierre-Charles. He is awaiting trial.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.

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