Brothers ordered to trial in fatal shooting over drugs
Homicide charged in Penn Hills case
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Two brothers charged in the shooting death of a man in Penn Hills during a November drug deal were held for trial following a preliminary hearing Friday.
Raymond Crumby III, 21, and Tyrelle Duncan, 19, both of Penn Hills, are charged with homicide and other offenses in the Nov. 18 death of Zachary Walls, 28, residence unknown, in the 300 block of Bryant Street.
Allegheny County Police detectives said the brothers were meeting Mr. Walls that morning to consummate a drug deal that Mr. Crumby brokered through Facebook. Mr. Walls was going to sell them a quarter-pound of marijuana for $950, according to police.
Mr. Crumby traveled to the meeting with a revolver under his seat, according to a criminal complaint. The men were seated in Mr. Crumby’s green Honda when either Mr. Walls or Mr. Duncan drew a gun, according to differing accounts the defendants told police.
“Duncan said the ‘ dude’ asked if they had the money and then the ‘ dude’ pulled out a pistol at which time Raymond started tussling over the pistol with the ‘dude,’ “said the criminal complaint supporting the charges against Mr. Duncan.
“Duncan said he grabbed the pistol while Raymond and the ‘dude’ were tussling, and he said he shot the ‘dude’ one time. Duncan said the ‘dude’ kept tussling with Raymond so he shot him again and the ‘dude’ said, ‘I ain’t trying to rob you no more,’ exited the vehicle and got into [his] car,” the complaint continued.
In the complaint supporting the charges against Mr. Crumby, however, police said Mr. Crumby told them that the victim showed them four knotted baggies of marijuana and then Mr. Duncan pulled a gun from his pocket, pointed it at Mr. Walls and grabbed the pot.
“A struggle ensued and two shots were fired,” the complaint said. “Walls yelled, ‘OK, OK,’ and ran from the vehicle.”
After the shooting, police said, the defendants drove to a convenience store in Monroeville before returning to a woman’s home in Penn Hills. Police said Mr. Duncan told them that he took the guns inside her apartment, hid the pistol under a bedroom dresser and a revolver in a bathroom closet.
An unnamed witness who was with Mr. Walls and stayed in the victim’s car during the alleged drug deal described to police a struggle in the green Honda. It ended, the witness said, with Mr. Walls running from the vehicle and collapsing.
The witness described the driver of the green car as a black man with an “unkept [sic] high top box style haircut.” A second unnamed witness recognized the green car from a recent accident in the area and described the man in the same terms.
Investigators checked with Penn Hills police, who said Mr. Crumby and his car fit the witnesses’ description.
Police picked up Mr. Crumby at his girlfriend’s house in the 2000 block of Garden Drive in Penn Hills. At the house they found Mr. Duncan, a man named Calvin Anderson, four knotted baggies of marijuana and two guns — a revolver and a pistol.
Mr. Crumby’s attorney, Anne Marie Mancuso, said prosecutors called three police officers to testify during the preliminary hearing in City Court, Downtown, but neither of the unnamed witnesses.
“The commonwealth didn’t put forth any witness who could tell the court or anyone exactly what occurred,” Ms. Mancuso said. “The commonwealth is relying solely on statements that were allegedly made following the incident by the two young men.”
She claimed that investigators questioned her client — whom she said had physical and learning disabilities — for seven hours.
“We’re challenging the knowing, intelligent and voluntary nature of the statement that he gave. My client was interrogated for seven hours. When he initially gave his statement to police there was no mention made whatsoever of a robbery.
“It wasn’t until hours and hours and hours of him sitting in a small room at the homicide office when the detectives said, ‘We know there was a robbery,’ did he finally say after seven hours, ‘There was a robbery.”’
Mr. Duncan’s attorney, Justin Ketchel, said, “Any firearm that was used in conjunction with this killing I wholeheartedly believe was brought there by the victim himself.”