Man acquitted of murder charge
Suspect’s friend drowned after police chase
Jurors rejected prosecutors’ arguments on Friday that the drowning last year of DaJuan Peak was a case of first-degree felony murder because his best friend Lontrelle Durham drove him into a pond, while fleeing after a crash into a police car.
“We felt like hewas not responsible,” juror Francesca Schintu said in an interview after the verdict. She said the evidence showed Peak “didn’t die in the car or because of the crash. Hewas making his own decisions” to try to swim away fromthe cops.
The acquittal on the murder count was a relief not only for Durham’s loved ones, but also for Peak’s family from Delray Beach. They agreed his death at age 25wasn’t Durham’s fault, and didn’t want him to be prosecuted for it in the first place.
”We didn’t think Lontrelle should be charged with murder,” said Robert Gammage, in a long-term relationship with the victim’s mother, Polly Peak.
Outside the courtroom, Durham’s girlfriend, Shaidae Luma, said shewas “so excited” because she is nine months pregnant with Durham’s baby and looks forward to being together as a family.
But Durham, 20, is not totally in the clear. After three hours of deliberations, the panel of four men and eight women convicted him on a lesser charge of fleeing and eluding, as well as grand theft auto.
Circuit Judge Charles Burton set sentencing on those counts for Aug. 9. Durham faces up to 10 years in prison.
Earlier Friday, the judge denied a defense bid to toss the murder charge based on an argument that, under the law, Durham didn’t commit a killing.
“He did not kill DaJuan Peak,” Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth Ramsey said during her closing argument. “He swam to the deepest part of the lake where he drowned.”
Ramsey later added, “It’s a tragic accident, but it is not a criminal act by Mr. Durham.”
Ramsey contended that the murder charge didn’t hold up because it couldn’t be tied to an aggravated fleeing count, and Peak’s death was ruled an accidental drowning.
The defense’s point was that Durham and Peak were fleeing from cops before the Volkswagen Passat theywere in sideswiped a sheriff’s car outside an adult club at about 3 a.m. Nov. 5.
The attorney said the pair walked quickly out of the club because they knew deputies were there to arrest Peak on awarrant for armed robbery and aggravated battery charges.
After the pair exited the parking lot of the Emperor’s Club on Resource Road, Durham drove east on Park Avenue with deputies following with lights and sirens. Durham ran a red light at Congress Avenue, and continued until crashing the Passat through a barrier at a dead end and vaulting into the water, according to evidence in the case.
Both men crawled out of the floating car from windows and tried to swim away fromthe shoreline where several deputies stood and called out to the pair before entering the darkwater themselves.
“These officers risked their lives for these two,” Assistant State Attorney Aleathea McRoberts said, noting one of them nearly drowned doing so.
Durham, whowas pulled safely out of the pond by deputies, is guilty of basic fleeing and eluding, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident— but not murder, the defense argued.
But prosecutors pointed to Durham’s own guilttinged words to deputies, just hours after Peak’s death in the townof Lake Park.
“It’s my fault,” Durham said while in custody that day, in a recording played for the jury. “If I had just not fled hewould be alive.”
In response to a defense argument that Durham “didn’t intend” for his friend to die, prosecutor Terri Skiles said premeditation is not a part of the felony murder charge.
The jury was not informed about the criminal history of either Durham or Peak. Both menwere felons before the drowning.
Before his death, Peak had two prior prison stints, multiple arrests, and a record of fleeing from cops. Records show Durham has six convictions, including robbery. Hewas released from state prison four months before the arrest in this case, and from Broward County Jail sixweeks earlier.
While thanking the jurors for theirwork, Judge Burton said the case highlighted a growing societal problem of young people fleeing frompolice, perhaps because of a lack of trust.
“For whatever reason, people run fromthe cops and bad things usually happen,” he said. “It’s something that really needs to be addressed.”