Recordpub.com - Decoy, driver testify at trial: Defense grills Fetty; Darrell Dukes takes stand in murder case

Darrell Dukes keeps am eye on evidence

Jodi Fetty recalls locations of the involved people at the home of Richard Lowther.

By Dave O’Brien

Record-Courier staff writer

Two people — the admitted decoy and the getaway driver — who allegedly assisted Cortez Oliver in the July 2, 2009 robbery of Richard Lowther in his Rootstown home took the stand Monday to testify against their co-defendant.

Both Jodi Fetty and Darrell Dukes stated in court that Oliver planned the “big lick,” or robbery, that resulted in Lowther’s death July 30 at Akron City Hospital.

Given his first chance to question Fetty after her testimony Friday, defense attorney Troy Reeves grilled the woman who admitted faking car trouble to help the group gain entry to Lowther’s house.

When asked what drugs she had ingested the night before the incident, Fetty admitted she had been drinking wine, smoking marijuana and crack cocaine, and taking several Xanax prescription pain pills.

“Was there anything you didn’t take that night?” Reeves asked. “There’s a lot of things I didn’t take,” Fetty shot back.

Reeve also asked Fetty why she pleaded guilty to all the charges against her without a plea deal. “Because it’s the right thing to do,” Fetty replied.

“So you’re gonna stand up and do the right thing now?” Reeves asked.

“Yes, now that I’m sober and see the whole situation for what it is,” Fetty replied.

Fetty denied offering to act as a decoy. She lied to police in subsequent interviews because “I was trying not to have myself affiliated with it.”

“So which one of your statements is the truth?” Reeves asked.

“This one I’m giving under oath,” Fetty replied. She also lied because “I was scared, I was intoxicated, I was in the jail, I wanted to go home,” she said.

Following Fetty to the stand Monday was her “boyfriend” and drug connection, Dukes, the alleged getaway driver. He also told Assistant Portage County Prosecutor Tom Buchanan he has no plea deal in place.

“I was involved in something wrong, I’ve gotta get it off my heart,” Darrell Dukes said.

Dukes said he and Fetty were “friends, you could say boyfriend-girlfriend sort of thing.” Jonathan Dukes is his cousin, he said, and Oliver is “sorta my cousin, his half-brother is my cousin.”

A 2006 Ravenna High School graduate, Darrell Dukes said he had a few jobs before he began selling crack cocaine and marijuana to make money. The night before the incident, he and Fetty rode around Ravenna and Ravenna Township in his purple Toyota Camry, selling drugs and smoking marijuana, he said.

“It was really Cortez’s plan,” Darrell Dukes said, to do a “lick” and rob Lowther, a 68-year-old retiree and avid coin collector. Oliver offered Darrell Dukes first $1,000, then $2,000, to do the job.

Darrell Dukes said he declined. “I don’t rob people. That’s not what I do,” he testified.

He eventually accepted Oliver’s promise of $2,000 to drive him and Jonathan Dukes to Rootstown. Oliver also said he would have to split the take with someone else, Darrell Dukes said.

“I don’t remember a percentage,” he said. He added that Oliver may have told him that his boss, “The Well Doctor,” Bruce Miller, informed him about Lowther’s money and the house. Oliver was driving a truck with “The Well Doctor” written on it before the incident, witnesses have testified.

Oliver “said his boss told him about it,” Darrell Dukes said. “I’m not sure if he did work (at Lowther’s residence), he never said that.”

Jonathan Dukes was to act as a lookout. He and Oliver were wearing all black clothes and boots “probably to blend in with the night,” Darrell Dukes said. He dropped off the two men off near Lowther’s house, but they soon called his cell phone and asked him to drive back because “the dude was up, the lights were on and they couldn’t get in the house.”

Darrell Dukes said Fetty came up with the plan to get them into the house, and so he dropped all three off a second time and waited. That’s when Fetty and Oliver came running back to the car, Oliver carrying a box of coins, a box Darrell Dukes identified for Buchanan.

Darrell Dukes said he later lied to police, telling them he didn’t know where the coins came from. Fetty was arrested after cashing in the coins and police impounded Darrell Dukes’ car before letting him go for several hours. That’s when he ditched the incriminating coin box in the woods, he said.

“It had my fingerprints on it. I didn’t want to get in trouble with it,” Darrell Dukes said.

Oliver also sent Darrell Dukes letters in jail, asking him to lie in court, he said. Buchanan had Darrell Dukes read one letter from Oliver, which stated: “I’m putting you on the stand I need you to say I had nothing to do with the beating, nothing at all my life is in ur hands real talk.”

Corrections officers found the letter during a “shake down” at the jail. “I didn’t hide it. I just didn’t throw it away,” Darrell Dukes testified. Oliver told him “if anyone came to talk to me just blame everything” on Jonathan Dukes, he said.

On cross examination, Darrell Dukes admitted he had 26 days in jail to discuss the case with his cousin before they were separated, but denied doing so.

“I was pretty much pissed at (Jonathan Dukes) and Cortez that we did this for coins,” he said.

“The first time at Giant Eagle, you told detective Krieger you didn’t want to be a snitch?” Reeves asked. “So (now) you’re a snitch? ... You gave up Jonathan Dukes and Cortez Oliver, didn’t you?”

“Yep, I’m a snitch,” Darrell Dukes said, later telling Reeves: “I don’t have a story. I’ve got the truth.”

Testimony continues at 8:30 a.m. today.