BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
STARKE— Starke police arrested one man awaiting trial on murder conspiracy charges, in addition to his mother and sister for allegedly hiring a hit man to kill a witness in the son’s upcoming murder trial.
Demetrius Dewayne Wilson, Valerie Vanessa McCutchen and N’Crisha T. McCutchen were all arrested on March 10 for conspiracy to commit murder.
According to court papers, police were first alerted to the plot after a drive-by shooting victim in Alachua County told deputies there that she believed someone shot into her home because she was a witness to a plan to kill another man: Blake Williams.
Man gunned down on Old Lawtey Road
On July 10, 2020, Starke police responded to the shooting of 19-year-old Blake Reed Williams.
While investigating the killing near the Church of God by Faith, police Lt. Michael Rooney wrote in a report that the crowd was shouting that the murder was committed by Marcus Whitfield. Williams’s family members later told the lawman that Wilson paid Whitfield to kill Williams because Wilson believed the victim had stolen a large amount of cash from Wilson.
Last month a jury found Whitfield guilty of the killing, based in part on the testimony of Tremika Presley of Alachua. Rooney wrote in a report that he met with Presley in the parking lot of the Alachua Publix a few days after the shooting, where she told him she was present when Wilson offered Whitfield $10,000 to kill Williams.
Presley also told Rooney that one week after the killing she saw Wilson and Whitfield together at a block party in Alachua. The following day someone fired shots into Presley’s home. She told Rooney she believed Wilson and Whitfield fired the rounds, due to her having knowledge of the pair’s conspiracy to kill Williams.
Witness disappears
Police later arrested both men, and Wilson admitted to Rooney that he believed Williams broke into a Thomas Street house in Starke and stole a large amount of cash that belonged to Wilson. Wilson, however, denied any involvement with the killing of Williams.
As the trials of both men approached in February of 2022, prosecutors had a hard time locating Presley, and asked a judge to issue a material witness warrant for her arrest.
The witness was eventually located and testified at Whitfield’s trial.
Rooney wrote that believing Presley was being intimidated and pressured not to testify, he began monitoring phone calls made by Wilson from the Bradford County Jail.
Rooney wrote in a sworn complaint that while monitoring calls between Wilson and his mother: Valerie McCutchen, the two discussed the missing witness and the fact that if Presley could not be located, the state had no case against Wilson.
Rooney added that Wilson and McCutchen talked about an Orlando man named “unc.”
“During the course of the conversations between Demitrius Wilson and Valerie McCutchen, they have cryptic conversations related to the possible testimony of Tremika Presley and discuss paying ‘unc’ to handle something for them related to the case,” Rooney wrote. “Additionally, Wilson’s statements to Valerie…are consistent with a criminal conspiracy that he is afraid may come to light due to Valerie talking to too many people about it.”
In one call, “Wilson tells Valerie to ‘stop telling everybody about what’s going on,’ and that Valerie is running her mouth too much,” Rooney wrote.
The officer documented further communications between Valerie and N’Crisha McCutchen and Wilson. Rooney wrote that he believed the family was hiring “unc” to kill Presley.
According to a press release, officers stopped the McCutchens as the two women were driving to Orlando to meet with the hit man.
