Man acquitted in Wilkinsburg massacre indicted on federal weapons charge
A man acquitted in the killings of five people in a 2016 massacre in Wilkinsburg has been indicted by a federal grand jury on a gun charge that is almost certain to send him to prison.
The grand jury on Tuesday handed up an indictment of Cheron Shelton, 33, in U.S. District Court in connection with a rifle found at his mother’s house during the investigation of the mass killings.
An Allegheny County Common Pleas jury acquitted Shelton on Feb. 14 after a contentious trial, which also saw charges against his co-defendant, Robert Thomas, dismissed.
The indictment charges Shelton with possession of a gun and ammunition by a felon following an investigation by police and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Under federal law, felons can’t have either. Shelton has a 2010 drug conviction in Common Pleas Court.
The gun charge pertains to a weapon found during the investigation of the mass shooting, which took place at a Wilkinsburg cookout on March 9, 2016. Five people died, along with an unborn child, and three were injured.
Three days after the murders, police searched Shelton’s mother’s house in Homewood and found a .22 caliber rifle and corresponding ammunition. The gun had been reported stolen. Shelton was taken into custody March 25 for receiving stolen property and later charged with the homicides along with Thomas.
The gun in question is not the same one used in the killings. Detectives said the murder weapon was an AK-47 assault rifle, but it has not been recovered.
Federal felon-in-possession charges almost always mean prison for defendants, who plead guilty most of the time. Typically, their only defense is to challenge the validity of search warrants used in the recovery of the weapons.
The case against Shelton was brought under Project Safe Neighborhoods, a Justice Department effort begun in 2001 to pursue gun charges against felons in the federal courts, where penalties are much harsher than in the state system.
Since then, hundreds of felons in the Pittsburgh region have gone to prison for carrying illegal guns.