Nov 05, 2024
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Fort Wayne police on Tuesday arrested a 30-year-old man wanted on a murder charge connected to the death of a woman who had been shot in a car after leaving a local lodge's charity casino event last year. Officers picked up Devonte Craig Travier in the 3800 block of Wayne Trace around midnight, according to a Fort Wayne police media release. They were helped by the department's vice and narcotics division, its aerial support unit and Allen County police. Travier, who was initially charged and arrested in connection with the death of 39-year-old Diasha Fitts in the spring of last year, had been released this past September as his trial date was rescheduled several times - partly due to court congestion. After skipping out on a hearing regarding his case Friday, a warrant for his arrest was issued and Travier is now being held in Allen County Jail. Fitts was the unintended target of gunfire Feb. 19, 2023 after she left the Fraternal Order of Eagles on Bluffton Road in Waynedale that night, according to Allen Superior Court documents. Near the scene in Waynedale of the shooting death of Diasha Fitts. After she and man spent a little more than an hour at the lodge, the two left and drove off in a car together. Moments later, while they were at the intersection of Winchester Road and Airport Expressway, someone in a grey car pulled up and opened fire on the vehicle and Fitts was shot in the head, according to court documents. Travier and a man later identified as Demaury M. Haywood were charged in the killing, with surveillance video shedding light on what happened inside the lodge right before Fitts' death, court documents said. Surveillance video from inside the lodge shows one person only identified as “WITNESS 3” using a phone to either take photos or video of the man and Fitts that night, according to court documents. The witness also moved tables at least once to get a better view of Fitts and the man, court documents said. Murder Trial: ‘He had money on his head’ absent witness says in deposition read in court This witness also texted a phone number, later determined to belong to Haywood, multiple times throughout the evening. The witness texted about the man with Fitts being in the casino, that he didn’t appear to have a gun and relayed how late the lodge would be open that night, court documents said. He also sent at least one photo and a video, presumably of the vehicle the man and Fitts were driving. Minutes before the shooting, court documents said, the witness sent the number traced back to Haywood this message: “He on Winchester.” Haywood went to trial on a charge of murder and was found guilty in Fitts' death. He was ultimately sentenced to 80 years in prison. Travier's next court appearance has yet to be scheduled. He also faces charges of dealing methamphetamine, resisting law enforcement and obstruction of justice in Fitts' killing.
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