Teen suspected of calling witness

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The teen charged in the drive-by shooting in June that preceded the death of Antwon Rose II in East Pittsburgh will not be permitted to have all of the police reports in the case against him in his jail cell pending trial because of potential intimidation.

Zaijuan Hester, 17, is charged as an adult with attempted homicide and related counts stemming from the drive-by shooting in North Braddock just minutes before Antwon was killed by Officer Michael Rosfeld as he fled a traffic stop. There is a separate case against Officer Rosfeld charging him with criminal homicide.

Investigators said Zaijuan was the back seat passenger in a vehicle involved in the North Braddock shooting, and that he was the one who fired a .40-caliber handgun at a man in the 800 block of Kirkpatrick Avenue about 8:20 p.m. June 19.

At a hearing Thursday, Deputy District Attorney William A. Petulla played a recording believed to be Zaijuan from a phone call made at the Allegheny County Jail.

The call, the prosecutor told Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani, was made to a key civilian witness in the case.

In the beginning, the caller refused to identify himself, saying, “I don’t want to say my name.”

As the short call continued, the caller from the jail said, “How you gonna make it right?”

And then later said, “I’ll have my girl holla at you.”

Although Judge Mariani stopped short of calling it intimidation, he did say, “He attempted to make contact with someone who didn’t seem happy about it. It could be innocent, but it could be an attempt to influence.”

At the prosecution’s request — and over the objection of defense attorney Anne Marie Mancuso — Judge Mariani ordered that Zaijuan not be provided with any copies of police reports or interviews in the case that involve civilian witnesses.