A Warren man is staring down the possibility of life in prison after being accused of the fatal shooting of his wife in their shared abode. Antonio Askew, 41, was slapped with charges of second-degree murder and felony firearm, as per the details released by the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office.
Caught in the grim theater of domestic strife, Eboni Askew, 34, met her untimely end on February 16 in the couple's home on Pearl Avenue, a macabre first for Warren homicide counts this year, according to Macomb Daily. Her husband's bond didn't come cheap, set at a weighty $500,000 cash/surety, and, if he's to step outside his cell, he's to be bound by the unblinking eye of a GPS tether.
Macomb County Prosecutor Pete Lucido spoke out against the violence that tore through the fabric of the couple's home life, insisting that such acts would meet with zealous pursuit under the law. "I will vigorously pursue justice for victims of domestic violence,” Lucido proclaimed in a statement, signaling a deep-seated intolerance for such inhumane acts within the community, as reported by The Detroit News.
Foreboding the awful event, the couple's domestic life was previously punctuated by police interventions. “There have been several police calls to the home in the past for domestic violence,” William Dwyer, Warren Police Commissioner, told Macomb Daily. Dwyer detailed how earlier on that fatal day, Eboni reached out to the police as her husband's temper manifested in the shattering of plates and the hurling of objects. She was found lifeless in an upstairs bedroom hours later, her husband yielding a gun, and his confession to the shooting.
The legal wheels have started turning. Askew was read his charges in 37th District Court, where Judge Steven Bieda shackled him with the bond and the mandatory GPS tether upon release. The intricacies of the case will unfurl further come March, with a probable cause hearing set for the 5th and a preliminary exam earmarked for the 12th, per information obtained by ClickOnDetroit. With the gauntlet thrown, Lucido and his office stand poised to confront the specter of domestic violence head-on in court.
