A Lake County judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case of a 21-year-old Chicago man accused of fatally shooting a 23-year-old Hammond resident outside a convenience store in 2022, after a juror suffered a medical emergency in the middle of testimony. The abrupt halt came just days after defense attorneys accused prosecutors of withholding key details about a gun until the weekend before trial began.
DeWayne Duncan is charged with two counts of murder and one count of robbery in the August 6, 2022 death of Durron DeGroot, who was found shot once in the head, per the probable cause affidavit described by the Chicago Tribune. Duncan, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, has pleaded not guilty. Lake County Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Myrna Maldonado said the mistrial followed a juror's medical emergency, according to the Tribune's report.
The trial, which had opened with dueling timelines from prosecutors and the defense, was thrown into disarray well before the juror's collapse. Defense attorney Brandon Hicks told the court he was not made aware that a gun existed in the case until the weekend before trial, while prosecutor Maureen Koonce countered that gun details had been in the investigation evidence from the start, the Tribune reported. Hicks also disputed the timeline prosecutors laid out in their opening arguments on August 10.
A Marijuana Deal That Turned Deadly
According to the account relayed to the Tribune, DeGroot met Duncan and co-defendant Javonta Williams around Callahan Park in East Chicago on the day of the shooting, roughly a half-hour before he was shot dead. Duncan reportedly wore black and white clothing that day and was driving the vehicle that later arrived at the Kwik Mart. DeGroot went inside the store first to wait for the dealer before heading to the alleyway behind the Kwik Mart at 4203 Hohman Avenue.
Probable cause documents unsealed in October 2024 revealed that Duncan was sent by his uncle to conduct the marijuana sale after DeGroot messaged the uncle directly to arrange the transaction, according to The Times of Northwest Indiana. Text messages recovered from DeGroot's phone showed the uncle had alerted him that the person arriving with the marijuana would be in a Kia. DeGroot appeared to text a message reading, “I hope I'm not getting set up,” and a witness who was on FaceTime with him just before the shooting told him to leave if no one showed.
Surveillance Footage and a Grabbed Gun
Security footage captured the encounter at the Kwik Mart, showing DeGroot appearing to exchange something with a teen in a green sweatshirt before Williams grabbed a gun from DeGroot's waistband, according to facts laid out in the Tribune's courtroom reporting. That account aligns with the 2024 probable cause affidavit described by the Times of Northwest Indiana, which detailed Williams exchanging items with DeGroot before removing the handgun from his waistband and passing it to Duncan. DeGroot appeared to fall after Duncan stepped out of the vehicle, and Williams flinched from the gunshot before both he and Duncan fled the scene.
Hicks pushed back hard on that narrative in court, saying the security footage did not clearly show Duncan and that Duncan's DNA was not found on the stolen vehicle used in the crime. Hicks said Duncan was never found in that vehicle at all. He also told the court he had sought a photo of a gun Duncan allegedly tried to sell to a man named Justin Ward, part of the defense's broader challenge to the prosecution's timeline.
A Witness's Fear and a Courtroom Cleared
Presiding Lake Superior Court Judge Gina Jones, who was appointed to the county bench by Governor Eric Holcomb after being nominated by the Lake County Judicial Nominating Commission, according to the State of Indiana, cleared the courtroom for witness Karl Frazier during his testimony. Frazier, who gave Duncan the marijuana to sell to DeGroot and met Duncan and Williams at Callahan Park on the day of the shooting, testified that he did not know Duncan was armed and said he had no intention of robbing or killing DeGroot.
Frazier said he did not remember key details of the case because he feared what DeGroot's family might do, and he reportedly had an altercation with the victim's family outside the courtroom. Williams, now 20, signed a plea deal in the case rather than face trial. Koonce had alleged in previous court filings that Duncan was part of a common goal to rob DeGroot and served as the connection to the relative who agreed to sell him marijuana.
Retrial Set for February
With the mistrial declared, Hicks said the trial has been rescheduled for February. If convicted, Duncan faces a statutory sentence range of 45 to 65 years in prison under Indiana Code § 35-50-2-3, with an advisory sentence of 55 years and fines of up to $10,000, according to Justia Law. Indiana treats murder as a single offense without dividing it into degrees.
Duncan was tried as an adult despite being 17 at the time of the shooting because Indiana Code § 31-30-1-4 strips juvenile courts of jurisdiction over anyone 16 or older accused of murder, mandating direct adult prosecution. Court filings charging Duncan were not unsealed until late October 2024, more than two years after the killing, a gap the Times of Northwest Indiana noted can occur when indictment documents remain sealed during multi-jurisdictional investigations.
The case adds to a grim tally in Hammond, which recorded 11 homicides in 2024 and a violent crime rate of 741.3 per 100,000 residents, per OpenCrime. Homicides across Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties dipped slightly from 74 in 2024 to 70 in 2025, according to regional coroner records cited by the Times of Northwest Indiana. Investigations like this one are often supported by the Lake County Prosecutor's Homicide Task Force working alongside municipal police departments, according to the East Chicago Police Department.
Hoodline has previously reported on other Hammond-area homicide cases moving through Lake County court, including a fatal gas station shooting and a 2019 shooting trial, underscoring how frequently violent cases from the city wind through the same courthouse. Duncan's retrial in February will determine whether the disputed gun evidence and conflicting witness accounts hold up before a new jury.
