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Double Homicide Trial Begins

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By TODD LESKANIC

tleskanic@tampatrib.com

Published: March 11, 2009

DADE CITY - Testimony is expected to begin today in the first-degree murder trial of one of two men charged in what authorities say was the drug-related slayings of two teenagers.

Luc Pierre-Charles Jr., 21, of Wesley Chapel, could be sentenced to death if found guilty. This phase of the trial is expected to last into next week.

Derek Pieper, 17, and Raymond Veluz, 18, 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 teens 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 found.

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.

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 and will be tried separately in June. He also could be sentenced to death.

In a deposition, Pattmon said Pierre-Charles came to his Tampa apartment a couple of days after the double slaying and gave him guns to discard. 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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