DETROIT – Metro Detroit’s courts are preparing for a busy start to 2026, with six high-profile criminal trials scheduled in the first three months.
The series of trials begins next week with the case of Desmond Burks, charged in the 2023 murder of Dr. Devon Hoover in Detroit’s historic Boston-Edison neighborhood. Jury selection starts Wednesday following a final pre-trial hearing Monday.
Later this month, Dale Warner faces trial in Lenawee County for the alleged murder of his wife, Dee Warner. Investigators discovered her remains on Warner’s property years after her 2021 disappearance. The trial, beginning January 27, is expected to last several weeks.
February brings three major trials. Floyd Galloway will face first-degree murder charges in the 2016 disappearance of Danielle Stislicki, who was last seen leaving her Southfield workplace where Galloway worked as a security guard.
Days later, on February 9, Buster Robbins heads to trial in Washtenaw County. Robbins was charged in 2024 after forensic genealogy linked him to DNA evidence from a 1989 rape kit in the Beverly Wivell case.
Also in February, Jarvis Butts will stand trial for the sexual assault and murder of 13-year-old Na’ziyah Harris, who disappeared in 2024 after exiting her school bus in Detroit. Prosecutors have labeled Butts a “serial child rapist” and filed additional charges involving other victims.
The series of high-profile trials concludes in March with former University of Michigan assistant football coach Matthew Weiss. Federal prosecutors indicted Weiss last March on 24 counts of computer crimes, including allegations he accessed private photos and videos of more than 2,000 student athletes, predominantly women. Weiss also faces multiple civil lawsuits.
Other Notable Cases
Several other significant cases are moving through the courts. Next week, Justin Miller of Farmington Hills faces arraignment in federal court following a grand jury indictment related to the alleged 764 Terror Network.
Tammy Sandoval awaits sentencing Tuesday for a fatal hit-and-run in Livonia that killed one of two twins walking with their mother.
Two Metro Detroit men allegedly involved in a pedophile ring face federal court arraignment Tuesday.
Deandre Booker returns to court Wednesday on multiple charges in the 2025 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Ashley Elkins, a Warren mother of two whose body remains missing.
Additionally, Mario Willis, currently imprisoned for a 2008 fire that killed a Detroit firefighter, continues an evidentiary hearing Wednesday in his bid for freedom.
The same day, a judge will consider whether to try three suspects together or separately in an alleged murder plot targeting a Washtenaw County foster family.