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Trial Begins In Slayings Of Wesley Chapel High Students

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By TODD LESKANIC | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 9, 2009

Luc Pierre-Charles

DADE CITY - Attorneys spent today selecting a jury to hear the first-degree murder trial of one of two men charged in the drug-related slayings of two teenagers.

Luc Pierre-Charles Jr., 21, of Wesley Chapel, could face the death penalty if found guilty as charged. Opening statements are expected Wednesday and the guilt phase of the trial is expected to last into next week.

Derek Pieper, 17, and Raymond Veluz, 18, both students at Wesley Chapel High School, were found shot to death on a dirt road in Trilby on July 28, 2006. Prosecutors have said the boys were killed after becoming entangled in a drug war.

That war had a third victim, 20-year-old Dade City resident Jeremy Henry. Henry was shot dead on Chesterfield Road on Aug. 13, 2006, just weeks after the bodies of Pieper and Veluz were discovered.

Commie Pattmon, a Tampa man charged with first-degree murder in Henry's death, is expected to testify that Pierre-Charles paid him $2,500 to kill Henry. Henry and Pattmon were friends and lived together at the time.

Henry's slaying came days after he contacted a Pasco County sheriff's investigator and said Pierre-Charles and a second man, Tyree Jenkins, were responsible for the double slaying.

A man identifying himself as Henry also called The Tampa Tribune to proclaim his innocence in the killings of Pieper and Veluz.

Jenkins, 22, of Zephyrhills, is charged with first-degree murder but will be tried separately in June. He also faces a possible death sentence.

In a deposition, Pattmon said Pierre-Charles showed up at his Tampa apartment a couple of days after the double slaying and gave him guns to dispose of. Pierre-Charles referred to the weapons as "the guns that [will] get them a life sentence," Pattmon said.

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084.

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