Documents unsealed in June murder of Hobart man found by Portage Township fishing pond
Documents unsealed Friday in the murder of a Hobart man whose body was found June 13 by a Portage Township fishing pond provide additional details about the death of Derek Hartz, 35, and how he met up on a gay dating app with the two men charged with killing him, who later returned to the crime scene to fetch a fanny pack they left behind only to leave when they saw police in the area.
Hartz’s partially nude body was found on a deflated air mattress in the Chustak Salt Creek Fishing Area at 331 West County Road 600 North by a fisherman around 10:30 a.m. that day, according to court documents. He was wearing a blood soaked white T-shirt and had multiple stab and blunt force trauma wounds to his head and chest, with his clothes next to him.
Domonic Brothers, who also goes by Domonic Weaver, 27, of the 4300 block of East 11th Avenue in Gary, is charged with felony counts of murder, murder in the perpetration of a robbery and robbery.
He will remain in Porter County Jail without bond, Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer said during an initial hearing Friday when he also unsealed the charging documents. Clymer appointed Marc Chargualaf as Brothers’ public defender and entered preliminary pleas of not guilty on Brothers’ behalf.
Brothers’ trial has been scheduled for Jan. 8.
Weaver’s co-defendant, Jawon Martin, who also goes by Jada Monroe, 28, of Danville, Virginia, remains in custody in the Hamilton County, Ohio jail. Charging documents in his case remain sealed.
Police in Cincinnati picked up the pair in the hours after Hartz’s death after they were in a police pursuit there and crashed the car Hartz shared with his mother, police have said.
According to charging documents in Brothers’ case unsealed by Clymer during the hearing, Hartz met up with Brothers and Martin on a gay dating app. Investigators found the app on Martin’s cellphone, as well as messages with Hartz from Brothers and Martin.
The pair arranged for Hartz to pick them up at the residence in Gary’s Aetna neighborhood where Brothers and Martin lived for “a consensual sexual encounter,” documents state. Before Hartz arrived, the two gathered a butcher knife and a landscaping brick from the residence and concealed them in a rose colored purse.
In police interviews, Brothers and Martin said they “had been planning on leaving the state, but prior to this date did not have transportation or finances to travel. It was indicated that prior to Derek’s arrival a ‘plan’ was developed,” according to court records.
Hartz began communicating with an account named “It’s two of us” the afternoon of June 12 according to data downloaded from the dating app on Martin’s phone, documents state. The thread includes a message to Hartz that said, “U wanna have some fun with us.”
Hartz replied he was busy but restarted the conversation at 4:03 a.m. June 13 and the duo reply at 6:25 a.m., when Hartz arranged to pick them up at the residence in Gary.
Hartz arrived to pick the two up in a white Volkswagen he shared with his mother and they drove to the fishing pond in Portage Township.
“Sexual activity was engaged in and during the course of the contact Derek was struck with the brick and stabbed multiple times with the knife,” documents state. Brothers and Martin “then left the body of Derek on the path in the wooded area and drove away in his vehicle. It was indicated that Derek was obviously deceased following the attack.”
Police used pings from Hartz’s cellphone and later Martin’s and license plate readers in Lake and Porter counties to track their travels through the region before they headed east, when investigators tracked them on eastbound Interstate 94 near Hartford, Michigan, and later on southbound Interstate 75 between Dayton and Cincinnati in Ohio.
In one picture from a license plate reader at 9:41 a.m. on June 13 at Indiana 130 and Lake County Line Road as the Volkswagen traveled westbound, it’s clear “there are two subjects in the vehicle,” documents state.
Police talked to roommates of Martin and Brothers who verified that the two were in possession of a white passenger car they had never seen before. The two lived together in one bedroom “and were heard packing frantically around 10 a.m. Both Domonic and Jada packed all of their belongings and informed their roommates they were moving out,” documents state.
The pair “made multiple stops prior to leaving the state,” documents state. Martin owned a gold fanny pack which they realized they left by the fishing pond. “They drove back to the scene and observed law enforcement vehicles and immediately left the area.”
The murder weapons also were taken from the scene in the same rose colored purse.
Hartz’s mother told police she went to bed around 4:30 a.m. on June 13 and Hartz was in his room playing video games. When she woke up, he had left a note that he was going to a friend’s house and took the Volkswagen they shared.
She texted him three times between 9:45 a.m. and 10:59 a.m. with no response, documents state. At 11:23 a.m., she got a response that said “I’ll be there soon,” after the time his body was discovered, according to the charges.
“The phone responded with the same message four more times” before she threatened to contact police and at 12:01 p.m., she registered her vehicle as stolen.
Police later recovered Hartz’s phone in the area of 61st Avenue and Interstate 65.
