Owensboro Police Department arrested and charged Cortemius Martez Peoples, 42, of Bowling Green on Friday for the murder of 25-year-old Nick Decker, of Owensboro, that occurred June 9 in the 1500 block of West Ninth Street.
Peoples is being charged with murder, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and possession of a handgun by a convicted felon in relation to the homicide. Peoples was relocated to Owensboro Police Department for questioning and was subsequently booked into the Daviess County Detention Center.
OPD is still investigating the homicide and plans to question and charge additional individuals involved in the shooting as the investigation unfolds. After recovering a video surveillance camera that showed two people at the scene of the crime on the night of the homicide, OPD Public Information Officer Andrew Boggess said more arrests should be made in the near future.
“This arrest was largely due to good police work by detectives of Owensboro Police Department, the Evidence Collection Unit and the officers of the Owensboro Police Department,” Boggess said. “We worked in conjunction with officers from the Bowling Green Police Department. Their detectives have worked with us the last couple of days in locating Mr. Peoples and, ultimately, getting him back to Owensboro today, where he was ultimately charged and is lodged in the Daviess County Detention Center at this time.”
Boggess said OPD has not identified which individual in the surveillance video is Peoples.
“We’re not sure that he’s the one with the gun,” he said. “We do believe he’s the person who actually shot and killed Mr. Decker.”
Boggess said Peoples had an active warrant out for his arrest in relation to a burglary that previously occurred at the same location where Decker was shot and killed. This incident has led OPD to believe this wasn’t a random act of violence, but that Decker and Peoples somehow knew each other prior to the shooting.
“Back in May, he had committed a previous burglary there,” Boggess said. “We’re still investigating it. We haven’t determined a motive for the homicide at this point. The investigation is still very much open. There’s a lot of evidence to process. Detectives haven’t closed the investigation by any means.”
Boggess said the exact relationship between the two will be determined as the investigation continues, but that it’s believed that Decker lived at the home where he was burglarized and killed.
“There’s been a lot of effort put in on both departments’ part to determine who the suspect was and to charge him,” Boggess said. “We still have another suspect to identify and charge, and we’re not going to stop until the second suspect has been charged as well.”
According to police records from Warren County Jail, Peoples also had an active warrant for his arrest in regard to a DUI he’d received in Bowling Green and had an upcoming June 26 court date scheduled for this DUI. Peoples had also been charged in Bowling Green for possession of a handgun by a convicted felon.
