Latrista L. Warfield was a 37-year-old Black woman from Peoria, Illinois, remembered by her sister for her vibrancy and an ever-present smile. Her life was cut short in what became the city’s first homicide of 2025.
On the morning of January 19, 2025, police responded to a call just before 11 a.m. at The Grove Apartments on West Candlelight Court. In a second-floor hallway, they discovered Warfield’s body. She had been shot five times, including twice in the back, and was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators noted a significant amount of blood and drag marks leading from one apartment to another two doors down. Inside the second apartment, a search revealed more shell casings and blood in the bathroom. While residents reported hearing gunshots around 3 a.m., a voicemail left by Warfield for someone captured the sound of two shots followed by her labored breathing.
The investigation quickly focused on Derreck S. Hall, Warfield’s 45-year-old boyfriend. More than 12 hours after the shooting, at about 5 p.m. that same day, Hall called 911 to confess. He told the dispatcher he wanted to turn himself in and had the gun he used. Police arrested him at his aunt’s house, where Hall told them he had hidden the weapon inside a grill on the porch. The firearm was recovered, and forensic testing confirmed that shell casings found at the crime scene were fired from that gun.
Hall was charged with first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon. A grand jury indicted him on both counts later that month, and he was held in custody pending trial. During his two-day bench trial, Hall admitted to killing Warfield but argued that he had been provoked. The judge rejected this claim, citing evidence that Warfield was shot in the back and that Hall’s actions after the shooting—fleeing the scene, changing his clothes, hiding the weapon, and waiting over 12 hours to contact authorities—proved otherwise.
In January 2026, Derreck Hall was found guilty of first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a weapon. On March 13, 2026, Peoria County Judge Steve Kouri sentenced Hall, then 46, to a total of 99 years in prison. The sentence consisted of 85 years for the murder charge and a consecutive 14-year term for the weapons charge, bringing the case to a close as of March 2026.
