The Porter County Coroner’s Office has ruled the death of a Hobart man found near a Portage Township fishing pond as a homicide, while documents for felony auto theft charges against two suspects who police said crashed the victim’s car on an Ohio highway provide more details in the case.
Porter County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Armando Salinas said he expects the auto theft charges against Jawon Martin, also known as Jada Monroe, and Domonic Weaver, who also uses the last names of Barnes and Brothers, to be upgraded on Friday in light of the coroner’s ruling. Both are in custody in Hamilton County, Ohio.
Preliminary autopsy results show a cause of death for Derek William Hartz, 35, of Hobart, as multiple blunt force trauma and sharp object injuries of the head and chest, according to a release from Porter County Coroner Cyndi Dykes. An autopsy was conducted Thursday morning.
According to charging documents for the auto theft cases against Martin, 28, of Danville, Virginia, and Weaver, 27, of the 4300 block of East 11th Avenue in Gary, a fisherman reported finding Hartz’s body around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday on a small trail at the Chustak Public Fishing Area, 331 West County Road 600 North, a 76-acre public fishing area just off Indiana 149 in Portage Township along Salt Creek.
Police arriving at the scene noted the male, who was identified as Hartz through fingerprint records and pictures on file with the sheriff’s department, had excessive bleeding from what appeared to be blunt force trauma to the skull, according to charging documents. He was laying on a small trail at the edge of the creek on a deflated air mattress. The deceased was naked from the waist down and clothing was found next to him.
Police notified Hartz’s mother, with whom he lived and shared a car. She told investigators Hartz had taken their shared car sometime after 4:30 a.m. Tuesday and left her a note that he was going to see a friend, according to court records. His mother attempted to contact him to return the car and received texts back after his body was found.
Police entered the car as stolen into the Indiana Data and Communications System, an online database for law enforcement.
Crime scene technicians located two Virginia identification cards in a fanny pack located under Hartz. They belonged to a transgender male named Jawon Martin, also known as Jada Monroe. At that point in the investigation, police didn’t know if Jada Monroe was “another victim, suspect, or missing person,” according to the charges.
Using law enforcement technology, police tracked the stolen car from Indiana and into Michigan, and then to Lake County, where Hartz’s phone, which was stolen with the car, was discarded. The last mapped location for the car was the 4300 block of East 11th Avenue in Gary.
Police put out a nationwide alert for the stolen car, a white, 2017 Volkswagen Passat with Indiana license plates, according to online Hamilton County, Ohio documents on Martin’s case there, “and ping for the cellphone belonging to the identified suspect/victim/missing person was requested due the exigency of the unknown circumstances,” documents state, referring to Martin.
The ping indicated the cellphone was southbound on Interstate 75 headed into Cincinnati. Officers there pursued the car, which crashed while fleeing from police, documents state. Martin was identified as the driver and taken into custody after a foot pursuit, as was Weaver, a passenger in the car.
Weaver, who had a Virginia identification card, also has two active warrants through Porter County. One is for misdemeanor counts of theft and drug possession, and the other is for misdemeanor theft, according to online court records.
Weaver was charged in Cincinnati with obstructing official business while Martin was charged with fleeing and eluding, receiving stolen property and failure to control a vehicle, according to online records from Hamilton County.
Indiana Conservation Officers are investigating, as are law enforcement officials from Cincinnati. The car was secured by the Cincinnati Police Department, with a hold for Porter County investigators.