Mixed verdict in trial in hit-run death of girl, 8
PHILADELPHIA » A man has been acquitted of vehicular homicide but convicted of manslaughter and reckless endangerment in the hit-andrun death of an 8-year-old girl a year ago in Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that jurors deliberated for seven hours over two days before reaching the mixed verdict Friday in the case against 25-year-old Paul Woodlyn III.
Prosecutors said Jayanna Powell was walking home from school with her siblings in November 2016 when she was struck crossing in intersection in the Overbrook neighborhood. The car also knocked her 12-year-old brother to the ground.
Authorities matched fragments from the crash to Woodlyn’s car at a suburban auto body shop. He pleaded guilty at the start of his trial Tuesday to a felony charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
Authorities: DNA led to suspect in woman’s slaying
ERIE, PA. » Authorities say DNA evidence led them to a suspect in the strangulation death of a woman in her Pennsylvania apartment earlier this year.
Twenty-six-year-old Justin Glover of Erie is charged in the June slaying of 26-yearold Anita Jones, who died the day after she was found tied up and unresponsive in her second-floor unit by a relative.
The Erie Times-News reports that detectives said in a criminal complaint that stains from a sweat shirt the defendant acknowledged having thrown away matched the DNA of the victim.
Erie County prosecutors said during a preliminary hearing Friday that seminal fluid found near the body matched the defendant’s DNA.
Glover was held for trial on charges including criminal homicide and first-degree murder. His attorney didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment Saturday.
Man’s second trial in 2012 homicide again ends in hung jury
PITTSBURGH » A Pittsburgh man’s second trial in a 2012 homicide has once again ended in a hung jury.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that jurors deliberated for about 9½ hours over two days before saying they were unable to reach a verdict in the case against 24-year-old Deshawn Nelson.
The Allegheny County judge said the court would schedule a third trial for Nelson in the August 2012 slaying of 19-year-old Daimond Hill.
Prosecutors allege that Nelson killed Hill outside his home after firing at him and his mother twice.
Defense attorney Randall McKinney said a witness linked Nelson to the slaying only from neighborhood talk. Prosecutors said she spoke with police just hours after the slaying and immediately identified Nelson.
Nelson’s first trial a year ago also ended in a hung jury.
Supreme Court rejects bid to halt redistricting lawsuit
HARRISBURG, PA. » The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to put on ice a federal lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s congressional districts approved after the 2010 census.
Justice Samuel Alito on Friday rejected the requested stay of the lawsuit by five Pennsylvania voters against the governor and elections officials, a court official said Saturday.
Republican leaders in Pennsylvania’s General Assembly had said in the request filed last week that a trial in the case could occur in about a month, as the justices are considering a Wisconsin gerrymandering case with what they call “substantively identical claims.”