North Side man pleads guilty to tampering with a juror

A North Side man whose actions led to a mistrial in his son’s homicide case has pleaded guilty to tampering with a juror.

English Burton, 67, of Perry North entered his plea Thursday before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos.

As part of the deal, prosecutors withdrew one count of attempting to obstruct justice.

Judge Rangos sentenced Burton to three to six months in jail with credit for time served, followed by 18 months probation.

Burton was immediately released from jail.

Judge Rangos ordered Burton to have no contact with the victim in his case. She also barred him from the Allegheny County Courthouse on Grant Street, Downtown, for any court proceedings involving his son.

Burton, who has a criminal history in Pennsylvania dating to 1981, was arrested July 12 in connection with the trial for his son, Charles Williams, 18.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, a juror in the case involving Williams was in his car at a stoplight at Ross Street and Fifth Avenue about 4:45 p.m. July 11 when a man approached him on foot.

Allegheny County Sheriff’s Deputy Vonzale Boose was at a

nearby bus stop and observed the interaction.

The juror, who reported the incident the next morning, said Burton first said, “’How is your wife?’” The juror responded that she had died three years earlier. Burton then said, “’I love my boy, and I need your help.’”

The juror told investigators he didn’t respond and then realized the man was the father of one of the co-defendants in the trial in which he was sitting.

Burton then shouted his phone number to the juror and yelled “’call me,’” before the juror drove away, Deputy Boose wrote.

Later that week the homicide case ended in a mistrial.

The abrupt ending to the case against Williams and Tremond Allston, 19, was caused by members of the jury having seen information about the case on television news and in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Williams and Alston are accused of killing Chauncy Howard, whose body was found in a car Jan. 10, 2016, in Sheraden.