Cleared in massacre, man gets 8 years on gun charge

A Homewood man acquitted in the 2016 massacre in Wilkinsburg that left five adults and an unborn child dead will spend eight years in federal prison on an unrelated gun charge, according to a plea negotiated between the government and his lawyers.

Cheron Shelton is set to be sentenced by video April 22 in U.S. District Court. He had pleaded guilty in December to possession of a gun by a felon.

On Feb. 25, 2020, two weeks after he was acquitted in the Wilkinsburg case, a federal grand jury indicted him in connection with a rifle found at his mother’s house while detectives were investigating the slayings.

In court papers filed Thursday and in a previous sentencing memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Maloney said the parties had worked out a deal in which Shelton would be sentenced to eight years in prison followed by three years of probation.

In a status conference report, Mr. Maloney said the sentence, although higher than the advisory guideline range, was “carefully negotiated between the parties.”

A U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent said at a previous hearing that law officers searched the Homewood home of Desdrene Smith, Shelton’s mother, and found a .22-caliber rifle and ammunition. The gun had been stolen in Uniontown. Ms. Smith told agents and police that the gun was not hers and must be her son’s, according to testimony.

A thumbprint on the gun matched Shelton’s. Surveillance footage also showed him at the house on March 9, the day of the shootings in Wilkinsburg. Police charged Shelton on March 25 with receiving stolen property and later charged him with the killings along with a co-defendant, Robert Thomas. Charges were dismissed against Thomas.

The .22-caliber rifle is not the same gun used in the massacre. Police said that weapon was an AK-47 rifle that has not been recovered.