Judge Steven Gall sentenced Derrek Dove to life in prison, with parole possible after 15 years, for killing Lyft driver Antoine Latham.

Monday's order is the sentence on the September plea. That plea is a conviction for murder and aggravated robbery. It is narrower than the February indictment WKYC reported, which included aggravated murder, two murder counts, two aggravated robbery counts and two felonious assault counts. WKYC did not say what happened to the counts left off the plea, and it did not say whether the three-year firearm specification is added on before the 15-year parole date.

WKYC reported Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, that Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Steven Gall sentenced Derrek Dove to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years. The station reported Dove pleaded guilty on Sept. 23 to murder with a three-year firearm specification and to aggravated robbery in the killing of Antoine Latham, 56. WKYC's Monday story called Dove a Cleveland resident. Its February indictment story said he was 20. Cleveland 19, in a Monday story filed before the sentence was announced, called him a Garfield Heights man and reported the same two plea counts. WKYC described the sentence as life with parole possible after 15 years. It did not report a separate number for the aggravated robbery count, and it did not say whether the three-year firearm specification runs before that parole date.

WKYC reported that around 10 p.m. on Feb. 8, Latham picked up Dove and at least two other people, whom the station did not name, for a Lyft ride set for a drop-off near East 102nd Street and Rosehill Avenue in Cleveland's Woodland Hills neighborhood. The station reported prosecutors said the suspects intended to rob Latham and fired, shooting him in the head, and that he then crashed into a guardrail in front of a residence near Rosehill Avenue and Woodhill Road. In that prosecutors' account, WKYC spelled the defendant's first name Derreck once. The rest of the station's reporting uses Derrek. An earlier WKYC story said officers were called at about 9:50 p.m. to the 10200 block of Rosehill Avenue for a reported crash. Cleveland 19 placed the shooting near East 103rd Street and Rosehill Avenue and reported police said Dove shot Latham while trying to rob him of his cell phone. WKYC and Cleveland 19 both reported Latham was taken to a hospital, where he died. WKYC's February story gave his name as Antoine Magel Latham.

Judge Gall said at the sentencing, "And to be shot in the back of the head in the most cowardly fashion," WKYC reported. He also said words do not begin to express how the community feels about a case like this. Latham's daughter told the court, "My father was 56 years old. He was a man of God, a father, a grandfather," and, "My father mattered, his life matters, his future mattered," the station reported. Dove's mother, whom WKYC did not name, said, "My heart goes out to the victim's family because I know they are suffering a tremendous loss."

WKYC reported in February that a Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Dove on one count of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, two counts of aggravated robbery and two counts of felonious assault. Prosecutor Michael O'Malley said then, "This was a cold and deliberate act of murder. Antoine Latham was killed while simply trying to earn a living." The station reported detectives used canvassing and other measures to identify a suspect, that Dove was arrested during a search warrant in which police said they also took multiple firearms, that police announced an arrest on Feb. 11 and named him the next day. The September plea is to murder with the firearm specification and aggravated robbery. WKYC's Monday story did not say what happened to the indictment counts that were not part of that plea. The plea is a conviction for the counts he admitted. Monday's order is the sentence Judge Gall imposed. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.