Witness reluctant to describe fatal shooting

WEST CHESTER >> A Coatesville man who told police he witnessed the fatal shooting of a military veteran by a reputed member of a city street gang reluctantly acknowledged doing so during his testimony Tuesday, after first maintaining that he had not seen the crime occur or the person who fired the shots.

The man’s story changed dramatically after being shown a video of the statement he gave Coatesville police investigators about three weeks after the murder of 36-year-old Kevin Jalbert in an alley off Belmont Street in the center of Coatesvllle two years ago.

“As you sit here today do you know who the shooter is?” Assistant District Attorney Christopher Miller asked the man point blank during his testimony. “No,” the man answered, only to have Miller play a portion of his taped recorded statement, in which he could be seen telling city detectives, “I know who the shooter is, and I’m not afraid of saying it.”

Sheron Jalen Purnell, 24, of Coatesville, is charged with firstdegree and third-degree murder, aggravated assault, and related charges in the case that involves allegations of racial slurs, witness intimidation, and brazen violence. He has been held in Chester County Prison without bail since his arrest in November 2016.

An alleged member of a street

gang known as “The Belmont Boys” for the oneblock residential street south of East Lincoln Highway, where the shooting took place, Purnell is accused of gunning down Jalbert, a U.S. Air Force veteran who was living in Coatesville after being treated at the nearby Coatesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Caln, around 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2016. The prosecution contends that he was targeted after he used a racial epithet in confronting a group of black men in the street.

The trial in front of Judge David Bortner is expected to last until Friday.

The name of the man who testified for 2 ½ hours Tuesday is being withheld by the Daily Local News because of allegations that he was beaten severely by associates of Purnell in September. The jury, in fact, saw photographs of the man in Paoli Hospital suffering from bruises and scratches caused in the assault, which prosecutors have said was captured on cellphone video

and featured a crowd of men shouting “Free Ryda” as they pummel the man, using Purnell’s street name.

But the bearded, tattooed man denied during testimony being intimidated at all by anyone in the case, and claimed that he was attacked by the men because he had been having sex with the mother of one of the group. Police have arrested one man in the case, who is waiting trial for assault and witness intimidation charges.

In his at times contentious testimony, the man was peppered with questions for nearly two hours by Miller about the events surrounding Jalbert’s death — first saying he had not seen the shots fired by the assailant, then contending he had been “high as a kite” on PCP when talking to police about what happened, then agreeing that he had in fact told police about the fatal confrontation, and ultimately agreeing that he had witnessed the entire incident from start to finish, and could identify defendant Purnell, or Ryda as he knew him, as the shooter.

“You watched the whole incident, correct?” Miller asked the man toward the conclusion of his direct

testimony before a jury of seven women and five men during the second day of testimony in Purnell’s trial. “Yeah,” he replied solemnly.

“Ryda did shoot that white man, right? Miller asked, the man answering affirmatively. “You saw Ryda do that, didn’t you?” Yes, he did, the man answered. “Ryda is the one who shot the man on Belmont, right” the prosecutor pressed.

“I guess so,” the man answered quietly.

The man took the stand in mid-morning and almost immediately told Miller under direct examination that he had seen the initial confrontation between Jalbert and a group of young men outside the house he shares with his mother and stepfather on Belmont, but that he had a bad “vibe” about what was going to happen and ran inside and upstairs to keep from being endangered by the violence.

“I heard eight gunshots,” he said, describing hiding behind a bedroom dresser to shield himself and a small child who was visiting that day from stray bullets. “I got behind a dresser. I thought it was fireworks

at first, but if it was shots fired I didn’t want to get hit.”

But when Miller pressed him about what he had later told city police Detective Ryan Wright about the events, the man grew combative. He either denied telling the police what Miller said he did, or contended that he could not recall specific details of the events.

“I don’t remember,” the man said more than once as the jury listened intently. “I’m not sure. I was smoking a lot of (PCP) at the time.”

He acknowledged that he had been incarcerated as a material witness in the case by Bortner after testifying during a pre-trial hearing about his reluctance to testify. He said he would be willing to stay in jail “for life” rather than to testify because of his fear of breaking the code of silence and being labelled a snitch.

But as Miller played edited portions of an taped interview the man gave on Oct. 25, 2016, in which he laid out what he said happened in the shooting, the man’s hesitation to answer Miller’s questions about

what occurred decreased, and he confirmed the version of events he had given Wright two years ago.

At the time, he said he had been smoking a cigarette on the back porch of his home when he saw Jalbert, who he did not know, approach a group of young men hanging out in an alley by his home. One of the men approached Jalbert and asked him if he wanted to buy crack-cocaine, which Jalbert angrily refused.

The man said he sensed trouble brewing, so he called Jalbert over and urged him to calm down, go get some beer, and go home. The men he was confronting, the man said, could be dangerous. Jalbert seemed to calm down, but turned around and bumped into one of the group, who the man later identified as a man he had known since they were children.

The eight men began attacking Jalbert, but he held his own, knocking out three of the group. But then Purnell pulled a handgun from his pants and began shooting.

“‘Ryda’ backed up and bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Like 10 shots,” the man told police, demonstrating how Purnell held the gun with two hands as he fired. “I saw it through the window.” It was then he

and his family ran upstairs to take cover, he said.

The man also told police that he saw Purnell later that night outside the Midway Bar in downtown Coatesville. Purnell passed him, and pulled up his sweatshirt to reveal a handgun sticking in the waistband of his pants. The man said he tried to assure Purnell that he would not break the code of silence, and bought him cigarettes as a peace offering.

On cross-examination by Assistant Public Defender Stephen Delano, representing Purnell, the man denied asking police during his interview about the possibility of getting a reward for the information he would give so that his family could move out of Coatesville. But when confronted with a transcript of the interview, it was clear the man had done so.

In the end, the man told police he was sorry to have seen Jalbert get shot, and was impressed at his bravery in trying to fight the group off.

“It is a shame that a retired vet has to come home and die in the street because he doesn’t wan to buy drugs,” the man said.

To contact Staff Writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.