Teen pleads guilty to drive-by preceding Rose death
He was the passenger seen firing from jitney
If there were any questions about who fired the shots in the drive-by shooting that preceded the death of Antwon Rose II by 13 minutes, they should be put to rest after the other passenger in the car pleaded guilty Friday.
Zaijuan Hester, 18, of Swissvale pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated assault and four firearms charges. In exchange for the plea, the prosecution agreed to withdraw a count of attempted homicide.
Deputy District Attorney William
Petulla said there is no agreement to sentencing, which is scheduled for June 4 before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani.
Hester’s defense attorney, Anne Marie Mancuso, said her client will not testify against former East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld, whose trial on a single count of homicide for killing Antwon will begin Tuesday.
At the plea hearing Friday morning, Mr. Petulla recounted what happened about 8:27 p.m. June 19 at the intersection of Jones and Baldridge avenues in North Braddock.
The shots were fired from the rear-passenger side of a light-colored Chevy Cruze traveling east on Baldridge.
Two people were injured in the shooting — Thomas Cole Jr., who was shot in the abdomen, and William Ross, who prosecutors have
said may have been struck by shrapnel in the leg.
Mr. Petulla said surveillance cameras on the street showed that a man wearing a red shirt on the opposite side of Jones Avenue returned fire at the Cruze.
Nine spent .40-caliber shell casings were found on the street, believed to have been fired by Hester. They matched a gun recovered in the investigation that had been stolen in Lower Burrell in August 2016.
Mr. Rosfeld’s defense attorney, Patrick Thomassey, recently filed a motion in the case that included a police report written by a Pennsylvania state trooper. That trooper said he spoke with Ross, who claimed that Antwon was the one who shot him, and that Antwon had a dispute with him.
But during the plea hearing Friday, Mr. Petulla noted that the video footage showed the shots were fired from the rear passenger seat, where Hester was sitting.
“[T]he rear passengerside window was lowered, and a gun came out the window. Several gunshots were fired from the rear passenger side of the vehicle,” Mr. Petulla said.
Antwon was the front-seat passenger; video of the shooting shows the front passenger window was up.
Minutes later in East Pittsburgh, then-Officer Rosfeld stopped the Cruze and shot Antwon as he attempted to flee. Hester also ran but was arrested in late June.
Hester did not dispute the prosecutor’s summary of the drive-by case.
The jitney driver, who had picked both Antwon and Hester up in Hawkins Village at 7 or 7:30 p.m. that evening, also told police it was the rear passenger who fired the shots, the prosecutor said. He then picked Hester out of a photo array.
Mr. Petulla did note, however, that it appeared from the video that Ross was the target of the shooting.
Ms. Mancuso called her client’s decision to plead guilty a tough one, but she dismissed the notion offered by the state trooper’s report that Antwon was the shooter.
“The evidence in this case clearly showed something else,” Ms. Mancuso said.
At sentencing, Ms. Mancuso said she will call family members, coaches and community members to testify on Hester’s behalf.
“We have a tremendous amount of evidence to present at sentencing,” she said. “He has a background that has been very difficult.”