Trial begins in drug-related slaying

Lenn T. Tucker allegedly shot and killed homeless man he sold cocaine to

WEST CHESTER » Testimony in the trial of a Coatesville man accused of the drug-related slaying of a homeless man from Pottstown is scheduled to begin today in Common Pleas Court.

A jury of nine men and three women will hear the case against Lenn T. Tucker in Judge Patrick Carmody’s courtroom on charges of first-degree murder, illegal possession of a firearm, and related offenses. The panel was chosen Friday.

Tucker, 26, is charged with the August shooting of 24-year-old Alex J. Hartzell, after Hartzell allegedly complained about the quality of cocaine that Tucker had sold him. The shooting and actions of Hartzell in the moments before his death, were captured on multiple surveillance cameras on Coatesville’s north side.

Hartzell was shot 11 times in the body and head, according to authorities.

Coatesville police responded to a 911 call of a report of shots fired in the area of North Seventh Avenue and Diamond Street on Aug. 26 at about 6:05 a.m. Upon a search of the area, Coatesville police said they found a deceased white man, later identified as Hartzell, on the ground in the backyard of a residence in the 600 block of East Chestnut Street. Hartzell occasionally resided in shelters in Coatesville, according to the investigators.

One witness told police that he was in the area of North Seventh Avenue and Diamond Street at the time of the shooting and identified Tucker as the alleged shooter, according to the criminal report. He identified Tucker, whom he had known from the neighborhood, as “Butter.” A second witness told police that Tucker allegedly sold drugs in the area of Seventh Avenue and Diamond Street, but had not returned to the area since the murder, according to the arrest affidavit filed in the case by Chester County Detective James Ciliberto and Coatesville Detective Kevin Campbell.

Detectives reviewed video from that intersection and said they observed Hartzell meet the man who would eventually shoot him. Hartzell left the area and walked west on Diamond Street to East Chestnut Street, with the shooter following him. They entered the rear yard of the Chestnut Street property. When Hartzell turned to face the man, detectives said the shooter started firing from a handgun numerous times at close range.

When Hartzell was on the ground, one video shows the shooter standing directly over Hartzell and firing several more shots into his body.

The videos then show the shooter walking west on Diamond Street toward Sixth Avenue, according to the report.

The investigators wrote that they interviewed Tucker on Sept. 9, at which time he reportedly admitted to them that he was in the area of Seventh Avenue and Diamond Street on Aug. 26. Tucker reportedly told the detectives that he followed Hartzell that day on Diamond Street,

but that four other people were present in the backyard of a residence in the 600 block of East Chestnut Street when the shooting occurred there. However, police said that the video recording shows only two people there at that time.

The prosecution is led by Chief Deputy District Attorney Ronald Yen. Tucker is represented by veteran defense attorney Edward C. Meehan Jr. of Philadelphia. The trial is expected to last through the week.