A Summit County judge has set a $1 million cash bond for the man charged with murder in the shooting death of Stow resident Larretta Allison, whose body was found inside her Vira Road home late last month. Pierre Wade, 38, was arraigned on the murder charge in Stow Municipal Court on Friday, Nov. 6, according to court clerk Nicole Kowalski, whose account was reported by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Wade is charged in connection with the death of Allison, 36, who was found shot to death on Oct. 28, according to the Stow Police Department. Police described Wade as Allison’s boyfriend and said he had been living at the same address as her, the Beacon Journal reported from a Stow police news release. The charge is an allegation, and Wade has not been convicted.
The case began around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 28, when Stow officers were called to the 4000 block of Vira Road to assist a landlord with an eviction process for a tenant, Stow Police Chief Heather Prusha told the Akron Beacon Journal. After officers arrived, relatives of the tenant came to the home, concerned that they had not been able to reach their loved one who lived there, Prusha told the Beacon Journal.
Inside, officers discovered Allison had been shot to death. She suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:52 p.m., according to the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office, as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. Prusha told the Beacon Journal that Allison had been deceased for a couple of days before she was found. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been assisting in the investigation, according to Stow police reporting by WJW.
Police issued a lookout notice for Wade, and on Friday, Oct. 30, members of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office located him in Cleveland and took him into custody on an unrelated failure-to-appear warrant, according to the Stow Police Department news release reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. A handgun was found in Wade’s vehicle at the time of the arrest, police said in that release. The Summit County Prosecutor’s Office authorized the murder charge against Wade, according to Stow police reporting by WJW.
Allison’s family has described her death as an act of domestic violence. In a GoFundMe created by a family member, and quoted by the Akron Beacon Journal, the family wrote that “her life was tragically cut short in an act of domestic violence involving the person who was supposed to love and protect her.” The fundraiser seeks $15,000 for funeral expenses and for Allison’s two young children, who are now without their mother, the Beacon Journal reported.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What is confirmed comes from officials: the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office findings on how Allison died, the Stow Police Department’s account of the Oct. 28 discovery and the Oct. 30 arrest in Cleveland, and the Stow Municipal Court’s $1 million cash bond, set at Wade’s Nov. 6 arraignment. What has not been released is just as important: police have not publicly described a motive, have not said what role, if any, the handgun recovered from Wade’s vehicle played in the shooting, and have not released a detailed account of what happened inside the home in the days before Allison was found.
The timeline, as officials have released it, runs from the Oct. 28 discovery on Vira Road, through Wade’s Oct. 30 arrest in Cleveland, to Friday’s arraignment and bond decision in Stow Municipal Court. Each step so far has come from a police release, a medical examiner’s finding or a court record — the family fundraiser is the only public statement from Allison’s loved ones, and it speaks to their loss rather than to the evidence in the case.
What happens next is the court process in Summit County. With bond set at $1 million cash, Wade’s case will move forward from municipal court, and the murder charge will be tested against the evidence investigators have gathered with the help of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. NewsForce247 will update this story as court dates and filings are announced.
Related coverage: A 16-year-old was charged this week in the Hardesty Place shooting that killed Aaliyah Chan, 18, another Summit County homicide case now moving through the courts.
Photo: Stow photographer, CC BY-SA 3.0