Club Erotica shooter in jail after high court declines to hear appeal

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has declined to take up the case of an Allegheny County man whose murder conviction was thrown out by a judge and later reinstated by the state Superior Court.

Charles Becher, 27, was supposed to be sentenced in January 2022 for the murder of Seth McDermit a year prior in the parking lot of Club Erotica in McKees Rocks.

Instead, Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani threw out the third-degree murder verdict a jury delivered several months earlier and ordered that Becher receive a new trial.

Becher and another man, Khalil Walls, were both charged in connection with the Jan. 29, 2021, shooting outside the McKees Rocks club. Police said McDermit was shot by Becher; Mr. Walls was charged with homicide in the shooting death of Christopher Butler during the same incident. Mr. Walls ultimately was acquitted.

Judge Mariani’s decision regarding Becher’s conviction stemmed from a comment made by one of the prosecution’s witnesses during testimony in the October 2021 trial: One of Becher’s cousin’s said Becher was going to ,“smoke all of them” on the night of the shooting.

The judge said that statement was improper hearsay and a new trial was “in the interest of justice.”

The District Attorney’s Office appealed the judge’s ruling to the Superior Court, arguing that Judge Mariani abused his discretion in granting the new trial. Prosecutors also pointed to the fact the judge had already told the jury the statement in question should not be taken as evidence.

“[The] statement made outside the presence of the defendant cannot be proof of the defendant’s intent or state of mind unless you determine from the evidence that the defendant was conscious of and promoted the statement, or endorsed that statement in some fashion,” Judge Mariani told the jury.

The DA’s office argued that there was no reason to believe the jury did not listen to those instructions.

Last year, the Superior Court reversed the judge’s decision, ruling that it was “not ‘exceedingly clear’ that the testimony about the threats was ‘blatant, inadmissible hearsay’ that prejudiced Becher.”

Becher’s attorney appealed that decision to the state Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.

With the appellate process exhausted, Becher’s bond was revoked and a bench warrant issued by Common Pleas Judge Kelly Bigley. Allegheny County Sheriff’s deputies took Becher into custody at his home Tuesday. He was taken to the Allegheny County Jail. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for May

6 in front of Judge Bigley, according to court records.