Judge denies DA’s request to remove defense attorneys

A judge has denied a prosecution request to have three of four defense attorneys involved in the Wilkinsburg mass shooting case removed from the proceedings because of a potential conflict of interest.

The request came following the announcement in September that the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office had found a new jailhouse informant it planned to call at trial.

It had already found and disregarded two other jailhouse informants previously in the case.

“This case has been outstanding for multiple years,” said Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski at a hearing on Thursday.

“We have been through, and speaking bluntly and in plain English, two — what I’ll refer to without a pejorative connotation — snitch witnesses. Both of those witnesses disappeared from the evidentiary landscape. We have a third witness now who is on the horizon, who you have brought into your camp and complicated matters.

“I’m not saying that that’s wrong, because you develop information as it goes along, but in my mind, it is 50/50 if this guy is going to be here for trial and testify. I’m not throwing three attorneys off a case and delaying the case any longer because of, as you refer to, the tangled web.”

Prosecutors notified attorneys for Cheron Shelton, 31, and Robert Thomas, 30, that they received information from the new jailhouse informant in February.

Investigators spent several months reviewing the veracity of the information provided, and in September, the DA’s office said it planned to call the witness, whose name has not been publicly released, at trial.

However, the prosecution believed that if the witness were called to testify, it would present a conflict of interest for attorneys Randall McKinney, who represents Shelton, as well as Casey White and Michael Machen, who represent Thomas.

Mr. McKinney and Mr. Machen previously represented the man, identified as Witness No. 1, in a previous case, and Mr. White represents a co-defendant of the informant in a case currently pending.

Prosecutors asked that the three defense attorneys be removed from the case, citing a conflict of interest.

The new witness is the third potential jailhouse informant the DA’s office has considered using since the March 9, 2016, slaying of five adults and an unborn child.

In rendering his decision Thursday, Judge Borkowski also denied a request that an outside expert be retained to review the matter to determine if a conflict exists.

“The record contains no evidence that defense counsel received confidential information about the state’s witness that reflects on credibility or reliability or that they will not receive in the course of discovery as to that witness,” Judge Borkowski said.

He did say, though, that he would consider appointing special counsel, if necessary, to crossexamine the witness at trial.