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A Michigan man has been charged with fatally shooting a Detroit neurosurgeon, whose body was found wrapped in a carpet in the attic of his mansion more than a year ago.
Desmond Burks, 34, was charged in connection with the murder of Dr Devon Hoover, 53, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy revealed on Wednesday.
She said the two had been in an “intimate relationship” and Burks charged Hoover for “sexual services” on occasion. During the course of an investigation, officials discovered 4,000 text messages between the pair confirming the nature of their relationship.
Police found Hoover murdered in the third-floor attic of his Detroit home on 23 April 2023, with two gunshot wounds to the head.
“He was face down. He was only wearing socks. He was wrapped in a blood-soaked carpet,” Worthy said.
The day prior, the Detroit Police Department received a civilian parking complaint about a white Range Rover blocking a driveway about eight miles from Hoover’s home. After arriving at the scene, police noticed blood on the interior of the vehicle, which was registered to Hoover.
That same evening, police went to Hoover’s home and knocked on the front and back doors of the residence. The driveway gate leading to the back of the home was wide open, Worthy noted. Police left when no one came to answer the door.
The following day, police received a 911 call from a relative of Hoover’s requesting a well-being check of his home because he hadn’t gone to see his dying mother in Indiana, about 200 miles southwest.
Police returned to the man’s address and forced entry upon noticing blood on the rear of the home. The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Hoover’s manner of death was homicide.
As officials processed the crime scene, they noticed Hoover’s designer watches, wallet, money and credit cards missing from his residence. Almost immediately after the murder, someone tried to make several fraudulent transactions through the man’s accounts, Worthy relayed.
Authorities later found the text messages linking Burks and Hoover. Data revealed that Hoover’s phone traveled from his home to the area where Burks’ residence was located.
Additionally, surveillance footage recovered from the area of Burks’s home showed him parking Hoover’s Range Rover and limping away with a backpack. His fingerprint was later discovered inside the vehicle.
Officials obtained a search warrant for Burks’s home and found one of Hoover’s Cartier watches, which is valued at $6,000.
Burks has been charged with felony counts of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, larceny of over $20,000, using a computer to commit a crime, possession of a firearm by a felon and other gun-related charges.
Burks was previously charged in connection with the murder of an 87-year-old man from Dearborn, Michigan earlier this year. He is currently in the Wayne County Jail on a $1m bond.
When reached for comment in a brief phone call on Wednesday, his attorney, Gabi Silver, said: “I don’t know anything about it. He hasn’t been arraigned.”
Burks’s arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday at 10:30am.
