Chester teen pleads to luring victim to his death
Admits to drawing
out 18-year-old through texts, calls
A Chester teen entered an open guilty plea Wednesday to third-degree murder in the January 2023 shooting death of 18-year-old Mekhi “Twin” Harrison.
Alejandra “V” Pahola Barrios-Ortiz, 17, also pleaded to conspiracy to third-degree murder with co-defendant Ahshir “Shir” Javone Lloyd, 18, also of Chester.
Both were charged early last year following an investigation by Delaware County Detective Christopher Karr and Chester Detective Steven Byrne.
According to a stipulated agreement read into the record Wednesday by Krouse and evidence presented at a preliminary hearing in
May:
Police were called to the rear of 1020 Baldwin St. on Jan. 25, 2023, and found the victim on the rear steps of a row home.
A medical examiner found Harrison had been struck by a single bullet that pierced his right arm before entering his chest cavity and transecting his aorta. A .40-caliber round was recovered from his body and his cause of death was ruled a homicide.
Karr previously testified the rear yard of the row home where Harrison was found is surrounded by a 6-foot fence. Directly behind the fence is a pedestrian breezeway, and then the backyards of homes facing Elsinore Place.
Krouse said two fired .40-caliber cartridge casings were found in the rear yard of 1021 Elsinore Place, about 20 feet from where Harrison was discovered. Both were determined to have been fired from the same unrecovered firearm.
Investigators recovered Harrison’s phone from his body and performed a forensic examination that showed he had been texting and FaceTiming with Barrios-Ortiz between 4:48 and 4:59 a.m. on Jan. 25. Those texts indicated Harrison was trying to meet up with Barrios-Ortiz at that time, Karr said.
In a subsequent recorded interview with Barrios-Ortiz, Karr said the teen admitted to concocting a plan with Lloyd to draw Harrison out that morning, and that Lloyd was supposed to enter the breezeway through a cut in the fence and fire on the victim while she stayed at the top of the block.
In that statement, Barrios-Ortiz allegedly said she was hanging out with Lloyd and other friends at a house a couple of blocks away, and that she returned to that house after the shooting. She also allegedly admitted to handling the gun.
A 16-year-old girl who described Barrios-Ortiz as her best friend had also testified at the preliminary hearing. She said BarriosOrtiz introduced Lloyd as her boyfriend.
About two weeks before the shooting, the girl said Harrison had posted a picture of Barrios-Ortiz and Lloyd on an Instagram page dedicated to roasting couples and that Lloyd was upset about the post.
She said Lloyd had asked her in a group call to “line” Harrison, meaning to line him up or set him up to be killed, but she declined. The girl said Lloyd later admitted to her that he shot Harrison.
The stipulation read Wednesday indicated Barrios-Ortiz met up with Lloyd after the shooting and that he was holding the firearm. Lloyd allegedly admitted to shooting Harrison at that time, Krouse said.
During questioning about her plea Wednesday, Barrios-Ortiz told Common Pleas Court Judge G. Michael Green that she had not reviewed all of the discovery documents in the case because it was “painful,” but she understood what she was doing and had discussed it with defense counsel Andres Jalon.
Barrios-Ortiz remains incarcerated at SCI Muncy awaiting sentencing on May 21. Krouse noted each of the charges is a first-degree felony punishable by up to 40 years in prison. No recommendation for sentence was made by either attorney due to the open nature of the plea.
Lloyd is scheduled for a status hearing on the murder March 11. He also has another preliminary hearing scheduled for March 26 before Magisterial District Judge Wendy B. Roberts on charges of aggravated assault, conspiracy and possessing an instrument of crime for an Oct. 23 incident at the county jail in Concord. The details of that arrest were not available Wednesday.