Trent Larelle Jackson, 19, of Coatesville, and Efrain Molina, 28, of West Chester, had their preliminary hearings yesterday afternoon in Courtroom #7 at the Courthouse relating the the murder of a drug dealer in the East End earlier this month...
The case against Molina was presented first, as First Assistant DA Patrick Carmody called Det. Cpl. Scott Whiteside to the stand. Cpl. Whiteside testified that he arrived on the scene of the shooting at 317 South Adams Street at 01:12 on July 9. Upon arrival, Cpl. Whiteside testified that he saw blood on one of the beds, the floor off to the left of the bed, and on the wall of the stairwell leading to the 3rd floor bedroom where Christian Oliveras was found shot twice.
The next day, Cpl. Whiteside and Chester County Det. Edward Nolan went to Atlantic City, N.J., where Molina was arrested earlier that morning. During a two-hour audiotaped statement given while in custody, Molina allegedly said that he had purchased $50.00 worth of cocaine from Oliveras prior to the shooting. Molina allegedly then walked over to the 400 block of East Union Street where he got into a car with four other individuals and described to the four individuals how many people were in the house and if there were any weapons or other drugs in the house.
At that point, the individuals in the car allegedly made plans to rob Oliveras; two of the subjects then went to the house to commit the robbery. When they returned, one of the actors allegedly stated that "(Oliveras) wouldn't give it up, he fought" and that the two subjects "had to shoot him."
Molina was held for trial on Murder of the 1st Degree, Murder of the 2nd Degree, Murder of the 3rd Degree, Robbery, and seven Conspiracy charges (Criminal Homicide, 1st Degree Murder, 2nd Degree Murder, 2 counts Aggravated Assault, Robbery, and Recklessly Endangering Another Person); one count of Conspire to Recklessly Endanger Another Person was dismissed by consent of both the Commonwealth and defense counsel (15-1-04, CR-0000222-07).
In the case against Jackson, a neighbor of the deceased testified that she allegedly saw Jackson near Oliveras' residence on at least twice prior to the shooting. A couple hours before the incident, the witness stated that she saw Jackson and a second black male at the residence; Jackson had allegedly bumped into the witness and her child while they were out for a walk that night. She also noted that she noticed no other subject on the block in the preceeding two hours leading to the shooting. The day before the shooting, the witness allegedly saw Jackson by the side of her house.
In his arguement after the testimony, Jackson's attorney, David Clark, argued that the Commonwealth had presented no evidence, not even circumstantial evidence about what had happened inside Oliveras' apartment at the time of the shooting. "We are not more enlightened about the events inside of 317 South Adams Street" than prior to the hearing, Clark said. He had also argued that the Commonwealth had no evidence that Jackson was even in the car at the time of the murder.
Carmody argued that the Commonwealth's witness had placed Jackson at the scene of the murder and recapped the witness' testimony in asking that all charges be held against Jackson. Ultimately, Jackson was held on Criminal Homicide, First Degree Murder, Second Degree Murder, Third Degree Murder, two counts of Aggravated Assault, Recklessly Endangering Another Person, Possession of an Instruement of Crime, and seven Conspiracy charges; as was the case with Molina, a second count of Recklessly Endangering Another Person and a related conspiracy count were dismissed (15-1-04, CR-0000221-07).
The testimony present in court confirms (to an extent) some unofficial chit-chat about Oliveras' alleged drug dealing while out on bail awaiting sentencing on Possession With Intent to Deliver charges filed by both West Chester Police and PSP/Embreeville for sales that allegedly took place last year. How someone accused of those serious type of charges would even be allowed to remain free on bail - or even granted enough bail to be able to continue to sell drugs certainly calls into question the logic of that decision in the first place. Needless to say, that point is moot as Oliveras is now deceased and unable to answer to his crimes...
In any case, next week should prove to be pretty active at Common Pleas Court, as Judges MacElree II, Mahon, Nagle and Sarcione have criminal trial lists scheduled next week (the criminal terms for Judge MacElree and Judge Sarcione are one week; Judge Mahon and Nagle have two-week terms) while Judge Riley has an extensive Misc. Case list next week, including the sentencing of Thomas Barrett, whose trial and conviction on DUI, drug possesssion and unlicensed weapon charges was covered extensively on this blog last month. Barrett is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday, at the same time as 15-1-01's Criminal Day proceedings. I know that means a lot of juggling of time on Tuesday, but somehow I think I'll be able to pull off covering a lot of the big stuff at both District Court and Common Pleas Court...
As for right now, my hands need a break...
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