Newly released court documents show what investigators think happened in a Berkeley driveway Saturday night that left a 67-year-old man dead and a 23-year-old man under arrest.
Daniel Dewitt, who suffers from mental illness, was arraigned on murder charges Wednesday afternoon in the death of Peter Cukor. Cukor was found bleeding in his driveway Saturday night and later died at a hospital.
According to the probable cause statement written by Berkeley Police officer David Marble, Dewitt told Cukor that he was a psychic and he was at Cukor's home to find a woman named Zoey. According to Dewitt's father Al Dewitt, Zoey is a fictitious woman Dewitt made up in his mind. To Dewitt, Zoey is a Cirque du Solei character who drives a Lamborghini and she has been in his imagination for about a year.
Cukor asked him to leave his property twice. After the second encounter Cukor walked across the street to a fire station, apparently to report the incident. No one was at the fire station, because they were out on a call. On the way home Cukor and Dewitt had a physical encounter which left Cukor fatally injured. The report outlines a viscous assault, which included blunt force trauma, caused by a ceramic planter to the head.
Police said they found Dewitt was covered with fresh blood when police located him nearby. They said he admitted to being on the Cukor property and looking through their windows. "Dewitt admitted that he was looking for his fiance Zoey," wrote Marble.
Bay City News reports that Dewitt is the grandson of the late former Alameda city councilman and interim Alameda Mayor Al Dewitt. His mother, Candy Dewitt, told BCN that became mentally ill after he turned 18 but that she was never able to get him into a permanent treatment program.
