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Man Found Guilty In 2006 Double Slaying Trial

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By TODD LESKANIC | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 18, 2009

Updated: 03/18/2009 07:45 pm

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Luc Pierre-Charles

DADE CITY - A jury deliberated for five hours today before finding Luc Pierre-Charles Jr. guilty of first-degree murder in the slayings of two Wesley Chapel High students.

Pierre-Charles, 21, shot and killed Derek Pieper and Raymond Veluz on July 28, 2006. Pieper, 17, and Veluz, 18, were found facedown and side by side on Harris Hill Road in Trilby. Both had been shot in the back of the head, execution-style.

Prosecutors have said the boys were killed after they became entangled in a drug war between Pierre-Charles and two other drug dealers.

The trial now moves to a penalty phase, during which jurors will decide whether Pierre-Charles should be sentenced to death or life in prison. Circuit Judge Pat Siracusa will make the final decision but must give the jury recommendation "great weight" in arriving at a sentence. The penalty phase will begin 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Pieper's mother, Susan Wood, said she would prefer a life sentence for Pierre-Charles.

"I think death is an easy way out," she said. "I'd rather him have life in prison so he can wake up every day and remember why he's in there."

Wood, her husband Steve, and Pieper's friend and former schoolmate Austin Walters were regulars at the eight-day trial.

"Derek's legacy will live on," Walters said following the verdict. "It'll never be forgotten and he [Pierre-Charles] will never forget what he did for the rest of his life."

Outside the courtroom, defense attorney Lane Lastinger comforted Pierre-Charles' distraught family.

"We can't lose faith now," Lastinger said. "We still have work to do."

The prosecution's case rested mostly on four witnesses, three of whom testified that Pierre-Charles told them he killed the boys. The other, Angel Brooks, testified that she saw Pierre-Charles in a car with the boys as they drove out of the Pasco Woods apartments that night. Pierre-Charles lived at Pasco Woods.

Earlier testimony showed Veluz and Pieper had gone in Veluz's Mitsubishi Galant to Pasco Woods about 2:30 a.m. to buy drugs. The car was abandoned and set on fire on River Road in Dade City. A passer-by discovered it about 6:45 a.m.

Brooks also testified that she overheard a phone conversation between Pierre-Charles and his younger brother, Andre, in the early morning of July 28, 2006. Brooks said she heard Luc tell someone to get on their knees and pray and also heard voices begging for their lives.

Lastinger contended that the testimony of the three "snitches" couldn't be believed because each was a felon who had something to gain by testifying.

Lastinger also argued that phone records didn't support Brooks' contention that she overheard a phone call between the Pierre-Charles brothers. Records show that Andre Pierre-Charles' phone didn't receive any calls between 3:09 a.m. and 6:22 a.m. The boys were shot about 5:30 a.m.

"I submit to you that that indicates he [Andre] turned his phone off," Lastinger said in his closing statement. "Why are those hours crucial? That's right after [Pieper and Veluz] got to Pasco Woods and right after the murder takes place. Why turn your phone off? So it's not bouncing off cell towers."

Lastinger used the phone records to bolster his theory that Andre Pierre-Charles had something to do with the slayings. He also argued that Pierre-Charles' associate Jeremy Henry was involved.

Henry was shot dead in Dade City on Aug. 13, 2006. Prosecutors have said he was killed because he knew who killed Veluz and Pieper and was going to tell police.

A Tampa man, Commie Pattmon, is charged with Henry's murder.

In a deposition, Pattmon said Andre and Luc Pierre-Charles came to his house after the slayings and offered him $2,500 to have Henry killed. Pattmon said he killed Henry and was paid $1,000 cash, a gold chain and crack cocaine.

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

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