Desmond Burks denied being a killer at sentencing even after pleading guilty in the deaths of Dr. Devon Hoover and Reda Saleh.
DETROIT, Mich. — A Detroit man who pleaded guilty in the killing of a prominent neurosurgeon and in a separate road rage death was sentenced Feb. 20 to decades in prison after a courtroom hearing marked by grieving relatives, sharp words from the judge and the defendant’s repeated denials.
Desmond Burks, 35, was sentenced under a plea agreement that resolved two homicide cases that had drawn attention in metro Detroit since 2023. The highest-profile case involved Dr. Devon Hoover, a 53-year-old neurosurgeon whose body was found in an attic crawl space inside his Boston-Edison home. The second involved Reda Saleh, a 67-year-old Dearborn man who died weeks after a street confrontation. The sentencing closed the trial phase of both cases, but it also underscored the damage left with two families and a long-running investigation that stretched from Hoover’s death to Burks’ arrest more than a year later.
Judge Paul Cusick sentenced Burks to 35 to 60 years in prison on the second-degree murder conviction in Hoover’s death, along with a five-year consecutive sentence tied to the firearm count. In the Saleh case, Burks received 10 to 15 years for manslaughter, to be served at the same time as the longer prison term. The plea agreement had been reached Jan. 21, during jury selection in the Hoover case, when Burks abandoned plans for trial and admitted guilt to second-degree murder, larceny of more than $20,000, using a computer to commit a crime, felon in possession of a firearm and felony-firearm charges. He also pleaded guilty that day to manslaughter in Saleh’s death. At sentencing a month later, Burks stood before the court smiling as cameras rolled and said, “I’m not a murderer. I’m not a killer,” then described himself as “a people person” and claimed that taking the plea did not mean he committed the killing.
Cusick rejected that statement in blunt terms. Burks had admitted to murder in open court, and the judge said the conduct he displayed while relatives spoke only deepened the harm. Family members and reporters in court described Burks smirking, rolling his eyes and shaking his head during victim impact statements. Hoover’s sister told the court that the family was hit by two losses in one week because Hoover was killed just days before their mother died. She described the shock of realizing that while the family was trying to reach Hoover and care for their dying mother, he had already been killed. Saleh’s relatives described him as a gentle, religious and hard-working man whose death tore through a large family and left his disabled wife without her caregiver. Even with that grief, some relatives spoke in tones of forgiveness. Burks’ attorney, Gabi Silver, apologized to both families and said the guilty pleas spared them from a long and painful trial. What remains unknown in full public detail is the final sequence inside Hoover’s home before he was shot and moved to the attic, though prosecutors laid out a broad account in court filings and public statements.
Authorities said Hoover was last known to be missing in April 2023, when his white Range Rover was found blocking a driveway on Coyle Street in Detroit on April 22. Officers noticed what appeared to be blood inside the vehicle. The SUV was traced to Hoover, and police went that same evening to his home on West Boston Boulevard in the city’s historic Boston-Edison neighborhood. They found the driveway gate open but got no answer at the doors. The next day, after Hoover failed to travel to Indiana to visit his dying mother, relatives asked police to make a welfare check. Officers returned, saw blood on the back door, forced entry and found Hoover dead in a third-floor attic crawl space. Prosecutors said he was face down, wearing only socks and wrapped in a blood-soaked carpet. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide and said Hoover had been shot twice in the head, including wounds described in some reports as being to the back of the head. Investigators also said Hoover’s cellphone, wallet, cash, credit cards and at least one watch were missing, and that fraudulent transactions appeared on his accounts after his death.
The case became one of Detroit’s most closely watched homicide investigations because of Hoover’s standing in the city and because charges did not come until August 2024. Hoover worked as a neurosurgeon at Ascension in Detroit and was active in civic and cultural life. His obituary described him as a board member of the Detroit Opera and the owner of a historic mansion he loved to share with guests, especially during annual holiday gatherings. Prosecutor Kym Worthy later said the investigation was slowed by witness reluctance and by the sensitive nature of the evidence. Cellphone analysis showed roughly 4,000 communications between Hoover and a number tied to Burks, according to prosecutors, who said the two men had been in an intimate relationship and that some messages indicated Burks was paid for sexual services. Prosecutors also said Burks had been identified early, questioned as a person of interest in May 2023 and then released after prosecutorial review while investigators continued building the case. Surveillance, digital records and alleged financial activity after Hoover’s death later became part of the evidence cited when charges were filed. Prosecutors have said Burks stole more than $30,000, along with Hoover’s Range Rover and watches valued at thousands of dollars.
The second killing that shaped the sentencing happened nearly a year after Hoover’s death. Prosecutors said that on April 17, 2024, at about 6:45 p.m., Saleh’s vehicle bumped the back of Burks’ car near West Chicago Street and Greenfield Road in Detroit. The two drivers got out and argued. Authorities said Burks punched Saleh in the head and left him in the street. Saleh, who was from Dearborn, was taken to a hospital and later died on May 11, 2024, from his injuries. That case gave prosecutors a second path to prison time even as the Hoover case was still moving through the courts. By the time Burks pleaded guilty in January 2026, the cases had been linked for sentencing before the same judge. The agreement meant Burks avoided trial on the first-degree murder count in Hoover’s death, which was dismissed as part of the deal, but it still ensured a prison term measured in decades. The five-year firearm sentence will be served consecutively, while the Saleh sentence runs concurrently with the Hoover sentence. No further trial dates are expected because the guilty pleas resolved both prosecutions, though appeals or later post-conviction motions remain possible in the normal course.
The hearing itself offered a final portrait of how differently the room saw the same moment. Relatives from both families spoke in sorrowful, restrained terms about the men they lost. Hoover was remembered as a successful doctor, devoted son and host whose home had become part of the neighborhood’s social life. Saleh was remembered as steady, faithful and central to his family’s daily care. The judge praised those statements as profound and compassionate. Burks, by contrast, used his turn to reject the label of killer, deny parts of the prosecution’s portrayal of him and minimize the road rage encounter by saying it had been “a slap, not assault.” That contrast appeared to define the day. By the close of the hearing, the sentence had been imposed, the plea agreement had been carried out and the courtroom’s attention shifted from guilt to consequence. For the families, the next milestone is not another hearing but the long process of living after a case that moved from a missing doctor in April 2023 to a final sentencing on Feb. 20, 2026.
Burks remains in state custody under the sentence agreement entered in Wayne County Circuit Court. With the convictions now formalized, the public record stands at this point: two men are dead, the criminal cases are closed by plea, and any next court action would most likely come only if Burks files an appeal or other post-sentencing challenge.