A look at the witnesses
A list of the witnesses called Monday during the trial of Cheron Shelton, 33, of Lincoln-Lemington, who is accused of killing five people and an unborn child on March 9, 2016, at a backyard barbecue on Franklin Avenue in Wilkinsburg.
The victims: 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.
Day 1, Feb. 3, 2020
1. Donald Hamlin, Wilkinsburg police officer, on the stand for 26 minutes
Officer Hamlin testified that he was four blocks away from 1304 Franklin Ave. when the shooting occurred.
When he arrived at the house, a woman ran out screaming to him, telling him a man had been shot on her front porch. There the officer found Lamont Powell, who police believe was the intended target of the shooting. Powell was bleeding profusely from his chest, Officer Hamlin said, and was struggling to breathe.
“He kept asking for an ambulance,” he said.
The woman, Officer Hamlin testified, kept screaming, “‘They’re shooting people on the back porch.’ She insisted people were being shot on her back porch.”
When he got to the rear of the house, Officer Hamlin saw two victims at the bottom of the back porch steps and three more on the porch.
“It was a very emotional night,” he said.
On cross-examination, Officer Hamlin said he did not hear from Detective Mike Adams that he had spotted a potential suspect until the two men were later compiling their reports.
“He didn’t mention anything until the following day,” he said.
2. Daniel Chuffi, a nowretired Wilkinsburg police sergeant, on the stand for 13 minutes
Sgt. Chuffi was at Wilkinsburg’s police station when Detective Adams first called in that he’d heard shots fired. The sergeant, who recently retired and now works for the state Department of Corrections, said when he arrived, he also encountered the woman and Powell on the front porch, and then went inside the home.
Inside the kitchen, from the back door, he found a man face-down on the floor with multiple gunshot wounds.
“It was so chaotic,” he said.
Sgt. Chuffi said officers found a number of bullet holes in the back of a couch where small children had been sitting at the time of the shooting. None of them was injured.
On cross-examination, he told defense attorney Randall McKinney that he and Detective Adams passed on information Detective Adams had on a particular suspect and the license plate of the car he was driving to the first Allegheny County homicide detective to arrive that night.
“I don’t recall his name.”
3. Michael Ferguson, a police officer for Edgewood Borough, on the stand for 11 minutes
Officer Ferguson responded to the scene to assist his neighboring borough.
“It was just a lot of screaming and chaos,” he said.
He testified that he went to the backyard and saw the victims on the back porch.
“There was absolutely nothing I could do at that point to help them,” he said.
Officer Ferguson was sent to the alley behind the house to secure it and look for evidence.
He found a number of handgun casings near the backyard’s fence.
4. John Krah, a paramedic with Eastern Area Ambulance, on the stand for 10 minutes
He described for the jury the triage process that was used at the scene.
On the back porch, he said, there were three female victims, who were not breathing, as well as one man inside the doorway, who was also deceased.
5. Robert Bourdon, a paramedic with Allegheny
Health Network, on the stand for 10 minutes
Mr. Bourdon testified that he arrived at the scene within about six minutes.
As he approached the scene, he said, “Chaos would be the best way to describe it. Some running away. Some running toward.”
Mr. Bourdon said he assisted John Ellis, who had a gunshot wound in his chest and another in his back, which Mr. Bourdon said were likely from one bullet.
“In the ambulance, he was saying he thought he was going to pass out and was begging us to help him.”
Mr. Ellis was taken to UPMC Presbyterian, where he later learned he was paralyzed.
6. Lorenzo Garino, a Penn Hills medic, on the stand for eight minutes
When Mr. Garino arrived in the backyard, he saw casualties throughout, and multiple people were screaming, “‘She’s pregnant!’ ”
He began treating the woman he thought the others were referring to, Shada Mahone. She was unresponsive and was having difficulty breathing. At the scene, she was intubated, but then she went into traumatic cardiac arrest.
She was taken to UPMC Mercy, where she died a short time later.
Mr. Garino later learned that Ms. Mahone was not pregnant.
Chanetta Powell, who also died, was.
7. Terry Morgan, a neighbor whose home surveillance system captured audio of the shots being fired. On the stand for 5 minutes
Mr. Morgan testified that he has a surveillance system on his home with 16 cameras, including one that can record audio.
Prosecutors played that recording, which captured the sounds of 18 .40-caliber rounds and 30 assault-style rifle shots being fired.
The recording began the night of the shooting at 10:53 and 40 seconds, and ran until 10:54 and 46 seconds.
8. Tonjia Stone Cunningham, a friend of Tina Shelton who attended the barbecue. On the stand for 27 minutes
Ms. Cunningham went to the barbecue that night with her best friend, Tina Shelton.
She described for the jury the moment when the shots rang out, and the group attending the party ran up the steps of the back porch.
She lay there, curled up in the fetal position, as glass and parts of the house fell all around her.
Ms. Cunningham, a licensed practical nurse, called 911, spoke to arriving officers and took the children inside the house next door to a neighbor to be safe afterward.
She was shot above the ankle.
9. Detective Michael Adams, a Wilkinsburg officer, on the stand 1 hour and 7 minutes
Detective Adams told the jury that as he was on patrol that night, he heard the volley of shots coming from about 100 yards away.
As he made his way toward the sound, he testified that he came upon a man getting into a white Lincoln parked on Franklin Avenue. He pulled alongside the car to talk to the man, but the person never looked at him, and so Detective Adams continued on toward the calls for help.
As he drove away, Detective Adams said he made a mental note of the Lincoln’s license plate, which went back to Cheron Shelton’s mother and sister.
The detective also said he was able to positively identify Shelton from a still image from a video recording he was shown days later.
10. Sgt. Todd Dolfi, an Allegheny County homicide detective, on the stand 1 hour and 3 minutes. He will resume the stand Tuesday morning.
Sgt. Dolfi testified to the scene found at 1304 Franklin Ave., walking the jurors through dozens of pictures taken that night, including the shell casings that were found and ballistic damage done to the house.
— Paula Reed Ward