Second defendant sentenced in Derek Hartz’s murder
Jada Monroe, 30, of Danville, Virginia, was sentenced to 72.5 years in the Department of Correction on Monday for the June 2023 murder of Derek Hartz, 35, of Hobart, whose body was found near a Portage Township fishing pond.
Senior Judge David Matsey, filling in for Porter Superior Court Judge Michael Fish, sentenced Monroe to 55 years for murder, with no time suspended, and 17.5 years for robbery with serious bodily injury, also with no time suspended, according to a court representative. The sentences are to be served consecutively.
Monroe was charged with one count of murder and one count of murder in the perpetration of a robbery, both Level 1 felonies, and robbery, a Level 2 felony. Matsey merged the two more serious charges in the sentencing.
Monroe’s co-defendant Domonic Brothers, 28, of Gary, was convicted in August after four hours of deliberation by a jury in Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer’s courtroom on three counts: murder, felony murder, and felony robbery. Clymer sentenced Brothers to 82.5 years in prison.
Monroe and Brothers were charged with Hartz’s murder on June 23, 2023, at Chustak Public Fishing Area at 331 W. 600 North in Portage Township. Hartz met the two through a gay dating app, according to charging documents. They were arrested in Cincinnati after driving there after the killing in the car Hartz shared with his mother.
Court dates set for defendant in murder at Portage Ameriplex
A Merrillville man charged with murder in the death of a co-worker at a business at the Portage Ameriplex entered a not guilty plea during an initial court hearing Monday during which he also was appointed a public defender.
Lupe Odell McGee Jr., 20, is charged in the shooting death of Leland Jenkins, 22, of Chesterton, in the early morning hours of Oct. 16. Witnesses told police the two men got into a verbal altercation after they got off of work at Camaco, at 6515 Ameriplex Drive, Suite B, in Portage, according to charging documents.
McGee’s public defender is Clay Patton. Future court dates in his case include a status conference on Dec. 16 and a pretrial hearing on Jan. 6.
McGee appeared before Senior Judge David Matsey, filling in for Porter Superior Court Judge Michael Fish.
