Jury selection scheduled to start Monday in 2016 Wilkinsburg mass slaying
Several dozen witnesses expected to testify
Jury selection for two men accused of killing five people and an unborn child during a Wilkinsburg cookout nearly four years ago is scheduled to begin Monday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
The trial of Cheron Shelton, 32, of Lincoln-Lemington, and Robert Thomas, 31, of Homewood, is expected to feature the testimony of several dozen witnesses and last at least three weeks in the guilt phase. If the men are found guilty of first-degree murder, the case will continue in the penalty phase as prosecutors seek capital punishment.
Shelton and Thomas are accused of killing siblings Jerry Michael Shelton, 35, Brittany Powell, 27, and Chanetta Powell, 25, who was eight months pregnant; and their cousins Tina Shelton, 37, and Shada Mahone, 26. Three others were wounded, including a man who was paralyzed.
On the evening of March 9, 2016, the family gathered at the house where Brittany Powell had been staying at 1304 Franklin Ave. for a cookout to mark the unseasonably warm weather.
Officials said Shelton and Thomas received a call that evening alerting them to a Facebook post that showed that Lamont Powell, the intended target of the shooting, was at the Franklin Avenue home for the cookout, officials said. Powell, who was shot four times, was a suspect in the 2013 shooting death of Calvin Doswell — Shelton’s best friend — in Lincoln-Lemington, according to a criminal complaint.
At 10:54 p.m., police said Shelton and Thomas approached the house from Hazel Way, an alley behind the home. Investigators said they believe that Thomas was in the alley and fired a handgun at the group, sending the victims running toward the back porch of the house for cover.
Shelton, police said, used an assault-style rifle and started spraying the group with bullets as they went up the steps.
A total of 49 shots were fired, including 18 from a .40-caliber handgun and 31 from the rifle. The suspects fled the scene, but while on patrol that night, Wilkinsburg Detective Michael Adams heard the
volley of shots. Although he did not yet know what had happened, he entered the area slowly in his patrol car, without emergency lights. Detective Adams saw a man getting into a white Lincoln Continental about a tenth of a mile from the crime scene and made a note of the license plate. That eventually became a break in the case: It traced back to Shelton’s mother and sister.
Over the course of several days, investigators received tips that the suspects were from Homewood’s “Hilltop” section, which police have said is home to a branch of the Crips.
As part of the investigation, detectives viewed surveillance footage from that area, which they said showed Shelton and Thomas coming and going in various cars on the night of the shootings, including Shelton moving a white Lincoln at 10:28 p.m. According to the criminal complaint, Shelton moved the car, then exited and ran behind a nearby house into the backyard, where he “recovered a long, slender, ridged object that appears to be covered by a piece of clothing.”
Shelton then returned to the Lincoln and drove away at 10:30 p.m.
The video then shows Shelton and Thomas returning to the area on foot at 11:45 p.m., the criminal complaint said.
While investigators were continuing to piece together the evidence in the homicide case, they conducted a search of Shelton’s home and charged him with illegally possessing a firearm on March 25.
On April 1, detectives executed a warrant on Shelton’s outgoing mail from the Allegheny County Jail. They found a letter written to his girlfriend’s father, instructing him to take his friend to a house “round the corner,” the complaint said.
“‘I got something there that I was workin’ on getn [sic] rid of,’” he wrote. “‘Its [sic] downstair next to the lawn mowers wrap & ready to be toss.’”
Then, on April 6, 2016, investigators got another warrant to allow them to place a small video-recording device in a jail visitation room to capture his visit with his father, Robert Shelton.
The recording captured video, first, of Cheron Shelton making a motion like writing with a pen. Then, he appeared to become shocked and agitated. The video then captured Cheron Shelton pantomiming to his father like he was holding a rifle, including squeezing the trigger multiple times; and then a motion like starting a lawn mower, followed by a tossing motion, the complaint said.
Homicide charges against Cheron Shelton and Thomas were filed on June 23, 2016, relying heavily on video surveillance, phone records, and statements of two jailhouse informants. However, after a series of hearings and allegations against the informants, prosecutors now are not expected to call either of those two men as witnesses at trial.
Motions and denials
Initially, the case against Shelton and Thomas was assigned to Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman, who kept it for nearly two years before recusing himself. During a brief hearing in May 2018, Judge Cashman said that since he signed several of the search warrants issued during the investigation, he felt he should not preside over the trial.
The case was reassigned to Judge Edward J. Borkowski.
Since then, the judge has denied a number of motions filed by Randall McKinney, who represents Shelton, and Casey White, who represents Thomas.
In a motion to dismiss the charges, Mr. White argued that the prosecution should never have been given permission to obtain a search warrant for cellphone information because the affidavit contained false statements.
“Their entire theory on why they should be permitted to have obtained this information was a fraud,” Mr. White wrote in a motion to dismiss. “Therefore without these false statement(s), the charges would have never been filed.”
Mr. White also argued that the prosecution has failed to present any physical evidence or eyewitness testimony to show Thomas committed the crimes.
Judge Borkowski disagreed and denied the motion.
At another point in the case, prosecutors attempted to have three of the four defense attorneys on the case removed because of their past representation of possible jailhouse informants in the case.
Judge Borkowski rejected that motion, as well.
In late 2018, attorneys for both Thomas and Shelton also attempted to block prosecutors, who include Deputy District Attorney Kevin
Chernosky and Assistant District Attorney Lisa Pellegrini, from seeking the death penalty by arguing it was a violation of the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, but again Judge Borkowski rejected their argument.
Just last month, Shelton was charged with conspiring to commit drug trafficking at the jail. Following the announcement of the charges, both parties attempted to delay the trial at a hearing on Dec. 13, saying they thought they necessitated a postponement.
In addition, Ms. Pellegrini told the court that the prosecution’s psychiatrist had not yet completed his report with regard to mitigation for the penalty phase, and that he expected it would take four months.
Penalty phase
If Shelton and Thomas are found guilty of first-degree murder, the case moves to a penalty phase where the prosecution will present four aggravating factors, including: that the defendants created a grave risk of death to others; that they have a significant history of felony convictions using the threat of violence; that they have been convicted of another crime before — or at the time of — the current offense for which life imprisonment or the death penalty is possible; and that they have been convicted of another murder before or at the time of the current offense.
Once the prosecution presents its case, the defense will present mitigating evidence to try to convince the jury that the defendants should not be executed and instead should spend the rest of their lives in prison with no chance for parole. The jurors will then deliberate and must be unanimous to impose capital punishment.
At the hearing last month, Judge Borkowski told both sides that the trial would proceed on schedule, and that if necessary he will recess between the guilt and penalty phases to ensure all parties are ready.
“This case is going to trial, and nothing is going to stop it,” he said. “You can file a king’s bench [appeal,] you can file a queen’s chair, you can file a prince’s potty.
“The case is going to trial.”