Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives have arrested three people in connection with the murder of a Demitri Hampton, a 21-year-old Riverhead graduate who was shot and killed in a 2013 home invasion.
Police arrested Michael Parrish, 26, of Coram, Danielle Hall, 39, of Calverton and Corry Wallace, 40, of Riverhead for murder in the second degree after an investigation by detectives led to their arrest. Two other suspects may still be arrested, according to Assistant District Attorney Glenn Kurtzrock.
All three entered not guilty pleas today at Southampton Town Justice Court this morning. They were not eligible for bail.
(Click to enlarge. From left to right: Parrish, Hall and Wallace)
Hampton was killed on January 27, 2013 when armed robbers burst into his Flanders residence in the middle of the night. He was shot in the chest as he struggled with two masked men, who held his girlfriend and cousin at gunpoint.
Hampton was transported to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, where he was pronounced dead.
The district attorney’s office plans to present the case to a grand jury on Friday, Kurtzrock said. If the grand jury chooses to indict those arrested, they will be arraigned on the grand jury charges Monday at Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead. Otherwise, they are due back in Southampton Justice Court on Monday.
Kurtzrock would not say which, if any, of the three arrested yesterday was the shooter in the incident. If someone is murdered during the commission of a felony, all the perpetrators of that felony can be convicted of murder.
“This is the beginning of bringing closure, not only to our family but to the whole community,” said Hampton’s mother, Juanita Trent, at the court today.
The death of the affable, friendly and funny young man stunned the Riverhead community. Hampton was finishing his final semester at Suffolk County Community College, where he was set to graduate with an associate’s degree in criminal justice, when he was killed.
“We had not heard anything for more than two years, going on three years, and then we got the phone call last night out of the blue,” Trent said this morning. Police called Trent at 9:30 p.m. last night to tell her they had made the arrests.
“When I said my prayers this morning, I said, ‘Lord, look after these families as well,'” Trent said. “We all raise our children the best we know how. So many people are affected by this. Not just me and my family, but their families and the whole community.”
Hampton’s family filled four benches in the back of the courtroom this morning during the arraignment. A woman whom family members identified as the mother of Wallace’s children apologized tearfully to them in the courtroom today.
“I love you all,” she told them. “I’m so sorry. You’ll get through this.”
As police escorted Wallace from the courtroom, the woman stood up and yelled, “Don’t f***ing call me. I hate you.”
Five days before Hampton was killed, Wallace had been released on parole after serving a four-month sentence for felony charges of robbery in the second degree and attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance.
After Hampton’s death, the Riverhead community came together to memorialize him and support his family. A candlelight vigil was held outside Riverhead High School, where Hampton was a popular student who ran track, played basketball and was very active in the school’s anti-violence organization, Council For Unity.
A scholarship was also established in his name for high school students planning to attend Suffolk County Community College.
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