Man to stand trial in disappearance of missing Warren mom

• Deandre Booker is scheduled to be arraigned in Macomb County Circuit Court docket on January 22.
• He’s being held within the Macomb County Jail, the place he confronted his listening to on Jan. 7.
• A Roseville choose stated Google searches Booker carried out earlier than and after Elkins’ disappearance have been “crucial items of proof.” Elkins was by no means discovered.

A Roseville man will stand trial for the disappearance and suspected homicide of his ex-girlfriend, a Warren mom of two, simply over a yr in the past.

Deandre Booker, 33, was arraigned in Macomb County Circuit Court docket on Wednesday, January 7, on homicide and 4 different fees within the case surrounding the January 2, 2025, disappearance of Ashley Elkins.

Choose Joseph Boedeker of the thirty ninth District Court docket in Roseville dominated after oral arguments and written briefs from attorneys for either side. His ruling got here months after the beginning of a preliminary examination that started in August and spanned 4 separate days and was attended by Elkins’ relations.

County prosecutors had 190 items of proof and the protection had a handful extra, together with many movies, and quite a few witnesses who took the stand, together with Elkins’ mom and cops from Roseville and Warren.

Booker was being held within the county jail. He appeared in court docket on the primary day of the examination, August 6, however on account of disruptive habits, he attended the next days of the examination through video from a cell within the courthouse. He attended Wednesday, Jan. 7, and heard through video from the county jail.

Elkins, 30, was a mom of two younger boys. She was final seen on January 2, 2025, when she advised her household she was operating errands however by no means returned. She was final seen on video strolling to Booker’s condo complicated.

Authorities searched Booker’s condo complicated — together with a trash can — and searched a landfill in Lenox Township for per week after her disappearance. Elkins’ automotive was discovered on Jan. 7, 2025, round 13 Mile Street and Little Mack Avenue in Roseville, about 4 miles from Booker’s condo complicated.

Elkins has not been positioned.

Searches of Booker’s condo befell on January 3, 2025, a day after Elkins’ household looked for her there, and once more on January 4, 2025, after Booker requested police to test his condo as a result of it might have been burglarized. Through the second search, a Roseville police officer testified that he discovered drops of blood within the condo.

Extra: Milford man discovered lifeless in obvious homicide; Police arrest man ‘identified’ to sufferer

Extra: Detroit’s murder fee will drop 19% by 2025, the bottom since 1964

“The issue I actually have with this case is the truth that seven cops from two totally different police departments went into that condo on January 3 and located nothing,” Booker’s legal professional Robbie Lang stated after the listening to. “Every one in every of them writes of their report or calls their fast supervisor and says there isn’t any signal of foul play, there isn’t any signal of a battle, there isn’t any odor of bleach, there may be nothing that appears like a homicide occurred there.”

The subsequent afternoon, Lang stated, police went again inside and located drops of blood. He stated the condo had been open and the Elkins household had been there and brought Booker’s cellphone. He stated Booker wasn’t there, and Elkins’ household “noticed no blood, no proof.”

The Roseville police sergeant accountable for the case had testified that there have been a number of inconsistencies within the conversations with Booker, a surveillance video at Booker’s condo complicated that confirmed somebody pushing one thing heavy in a purchasing cart towards a trash can and blood proof belonging to Elkins additionally in a trash can close to the condo complicated.

The sergeant testified in August that Elkins had not used a checking account or mobile phone and that she had not communicated along with her household or kids. When Lang requested the sergeant if he had definitive proof that Elkins was lifeless, he stated no. The sergeant additionally testified that he couldn’t say how Elkins died.

One other Roseville police detective testified in August that Booker was at a house in Flint, the place a jacket, ripped pants, a hat and footwear just like these worn by the individual within the surveillance movies have been discovered. The jacket contained Elkins’ blood and Booker’s DNA.

Boedeker stated throughout his binding determination that he believed there was possible trigger that not solely had a homicide occurred, however that it was premeditated. He pointed to “crucial items of proof,” together with Google searches Booker carried out earlier than and after Elkins’ disappearance and the steps Booker took to misrepresent data to the sergeant.

Boedeker stated the Google searches included matters such because the quietest gun with no silencer, capturing a gun by way of a pillow, what occurs to trash after it is picked up and the way to cheat a polygraph.

He stated it appears “extremely unlikely” that Elkins merely disappeared and extra probably that one thing occurred to her towards her will. Though her physique has not been discovered, Boedeker stated prosecutors have introduced “plenty of proof” about what occurred to her.

Lengthy advised Boedeker earlier than his ruling that he did not assume the movies confirmed something anybody might make out as a result of it was too darkish and much away. He argued that there have been not sufficient info, testimony or proof to show that Booker dedicated a criminal offense and requested that the homicide fees be dropped.

Assistant Prosecutor Carmen DeFranco argued that the proof included DNA, an earring and bullet fragment discovered within the bathtub drain and the Google searches, together with a search simply 10 minutes earlier than Elkins arrived on the condo complicated.

County Legal professional Peter Lucido stated in a information launch after the listening to that Booker is accused of a “very disturbing crime.” He stated his workplace “is dedicated to making sure that justice is served by way of a good and thorough authorized course of.”

(This story has been up to date with further data.)

Contact Christina Corridor: chall@freepress.com. Observe her on X: @challreporter.

Help native journalism. Subscribe to the Free Press.

Ship a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.