Police charge four in Market Street murder

LIMA - Four men were charged Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a woman on West Market Street last month and the van used in the crime has been recovered.

Charged with murder and labeled by police officials as the shooter was Tony D. Curtis Jr., 20, of Lima. He turned himself in Tuesday. Davarus E. Callahan, 22, of Lima, was charged with complicity to murder and was inside the van when the shots were fired that killed Wendy Westergaard, said Lt. Jim Baker of the Lima Police Department.

Westergaard's passenger, Durelle Grant, 19, who fled the scene following the April 29 shooting, was charged with robbery. That charge is related to his actions against the men, not Westergaard, Baker said.

"Durelle was the target of this. Wendy was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Baker said. "This is a drug-related incident. We will not go into any other detail."

A fourth man, Ronnie Eldevon Irons, 21, has been charged with robbery and remains at large. Police originally had identified a fifth man they were looking for but later Wednesday questioned the man and said they were no longer looking for him while downplaying his connection to the crime other than he was a "person of interest."

Westergaard, 38, was gunned down in the 900 block of West Market Street near St. Rita's Medical Center. She was driving a Jeep Cherokee when a van pulled alongside and someone open fired. She was struck in the torso, drove off the side of the road and struck a tree. Her vehicle flipped on its side.

Grant was a passenger and ran from the scene.

Curtis and Grant appeared in court Wednesday. Lima Municipal Court Judge William Lauber set Curtis' bond at $1 million and scheduled a May 22 preliminary hearing. Bond for Grant was set at $500,000 and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for May 23, a spokeswoman for the judge said.

Callahan was scheduled to appear at a bond hearing this morning, the spokeswoman said.

Baker referred to Westergaard's death as "a complex case" because it involved multiple suspects. He would not say how Grant became a suspect.

Grant and Westergaard were acquaintances. Police do not know if Westergaard knew the other men, he said.

The van used in the slaying was found at a used-car dealership in Auglaize County, Baker said. It is a 1996 Plymouth Voyager, purple in color. The van was recovered earlier this week, Baker said.

Police would not identify the person who owned the van at the time of the slaying or say what led them to the car dealership where the van was found.