DEVEAUX PRELIMINARY HEARING

The preliminary hearing in the matter of Commonwealth vs. Earl Taylor Deveaux (15-1-04, CR-0000225-07) was held at Courtroom #6 at the Courthouse due to security concerns that, fortunately, didn't develop. Deveaux, 21, of Coatesville, faced attempted criminal homicide, aggravated assault, and related offenses following last week's shooting of a 19-year-old woman in the East End...

The victim testified that at around 19:20 on July 5, she was talking to some friends near the Locust Court Apartments when the defendant arrived and allegedly fired one shot at her, with the bullet striking her in the lower lip, lodging in her mouth and resulting in the loss of a tooth. After being shot, the victim ran into a neighbor's house, closing the door on Deveaux, then ran up the steps to the second floor. She then jumped into the bushes and ran to another neighbor's house. She also noted that two additional shot were fired, however she was unsure where the shots came from.

She testified that Deveaux said nothing to her before he allegedly opened fire. She had known the defendant for many years prior to his moving to Coatesville.

The victim also testified that she had noticed the defendant acting unusually different and that she suspected he was under the influence of some type of controlled substance. Under cross examination, the victim noted that her boyfriend, Trent Larelle Jackson, was one of the two suspects in the murder of Christian Oliveras two weeks ago, and that Deveaux was a friend of Oliveras.

A male witness then testified, though rather reluctantly. Under direct examination from First Assistant DA Patrick Carmody, the witness repeated three times "I don't want to be here. I don't want to testify." This led to a brief recess in which the ADA spoke to the witness outside the presence of the court. After a few minutes, the witness re-took the stand and testified to what he saw prior to the shooting.

The witness alleged that moments before the shooting, Deveaux approached him and several friends and asked if the witness had anything to do with Oliveras' murder. Moments later, the defendant allegedly pulled a gun out on the witness, causing him to flee into the backyard of a neighbor's house. It was the first time that the defendant and the witness, who testified that he and Deveaux were friends at one point, had discussed the murder.

At the start of the hearing, Carmody added two counts of Possession of an Instrument of Crime to the complaint; there was also a stipulation for the purposes of the preliminary hearing that the defendant was not licensed to carry a firearm in Pennsylvania, based on a letter provided by the Sheriff's Office.

Public defender Kathleen Boyer argued that most of the charges relating to actions agains the witness should be dismissed since she had claimed that the male who testified was not in iminent danger of suffering serious bodily harm, hence the Commonwealth hadn't proven it's prima facie case against Deveaux on those charges, but didn't provide arguement on the charges relating to the shooting of the female victim.

Carmody did concede that at least one of the charges, Recklessly Endangering Another Person was weak, at best. On the other charges, however Carmody argued that the totality of the circumstances justified all charges being bound to Common Pleas Court for Deveaux's actions against both witnesses.

In the end, Judge Knapp bound most of the 22 counts filed against Deveaux for trial at Common Pleas Court. Deveaux was held on one count each of Criminal Homicide, Attempted Criminal Homicide, and Recklessly Endangering Another Person (the second count on each offense was dismissed), six counts of Aggravated Assault (two counts each under three separate sub-sections), three counts of Simple Assault (initially two each covering two different sub-sections, a fourth count was dismissed), two counts each of Terroristic Treats and Possession of an Instrument of Crime, and one count each of Carrying a Firearm Without a License and Possessing an Offensive Weapon. Deveaux remains committed to Chester County Prison in lieu of $250,000 cash bail.

A recap from a very busy, but relatively quick Criminal Day at 15-1-01 will follow either later tonight or early tomorrow, depending on this author's alertness (between work and the hectic court activity, I managed to get a whopping two hours sleep today). Two weeks worth of Common Pleas activity will follow this weekend (that was just a matter of finding time to review court records and setting aside enough time to post the report)...

A COUPLE FAMILIAR NAMES...

During this afternoon's Miscelaneous session in front of Judge Sarcione, two defendants whose travails have been chronicled on this blog in recent weeks appeared on bail revocation hearings.

Earl Taylor Deveaux, 21, of Coatesville, who is presently in custody and awaiting a preliminary hearing for the attempted murder of a 19-year-old woman last week, appeared in front of Judge Sarcione on a bail revocation hearing relating to a January 10 arrest on drug possession charges. A pre-trial hearing was recently held in the matter regarding supression issues, which the judge had taken under advisement. Deveaux had been free on $2,500 bail prior to last Thursday's arrest on the new charges. Not that it would matter, but Deveaux's bail was revoked and re-set at $2,500 cash with no 10 percent option; since he's presently being held on $250,000 cash bail at CCP, this particular bail almost seems redundant (CP-15-CR-0000248-07).

In the other hearing this afternoon, William Pressley, 43, of Philadelphia, had surrendered to officers at the 18th District in West Philadelphia after failing to appear for trial on Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Deliver and related charges in front of Judge MacElree. Pressley claimed that he didn't appear for trial due to transportation issues, and that he had missed an appointment with the bail agency since he knew he was going to test positive for cocaine and marijuana. Judge Sarcione revoked his $1,000/10 percent bail and re-set it at $2,500/10 percent; he also allowed the $100 Pressley had originally posted to be applied to the new bail figure. Pressley is scheduled to go to trial in front of Judge MacElree in two weeks (CP-15-CR-0005046-2007).

WILD HOUR IN TOWN

The 02:00 hour was a very active hour to say the least...

It started off with the report of a disturbance at the Star Social Club at Market and Matlack, where two females were arrested for their involvement in what appeared to be a fight. From what it looks like, it appears both actors were charged with summary offenses and released, as there appears to be no criminal filings thus far.

Then, at around 02:20, while patrolling the area, Ofc. Bill Viebahn apprehended a drunken idiot in the Wachovia Bank lot on the 50 block of East Gay Street as said moron was attempting to get in his vehicle and drive off (and for the record, that doesn't count as a DUI arrest). The idiot in question, Jeffrey Christopher Stair, 28, of West Chester, was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Drug Paraphanalia, and Public Drunkeness and was released on $5,000 unsecured bail with his preliminary hearing set for (15-1-01, CR-0000227-07).

The real fireworks came a few minutes later, when Ofc. Harry O'Neill came upon a disturbance on Market and Church Streets where an intoxicated male subject was reportedly carrying a gun. From the sounds of it, it appeared that the subject was attempting to drive away from the scene before the cavalry showed up to place him under arrest. Two witnesses, who were later taken to the station to give a statement, reportedly observed the subject with said gun, though it wasn't clear if he had actually pointed it at them.

As a result of that incident, John Gabriel Gavin, 24, of Media, was charged with two counts each of Possession of a Weapon, Recklessly Endangering Another Person, Simple Assault, Disorderly Conduct, and one count of Public Drunkeness. He is presently free on $3,500 bail after being arraigned Sunday morning by Judge Robert Davis in Coatesville District Court (15-1-01, CR-0000193-07); his preliminary hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday in front of Judge Bruno.

But, other than the routine BS noise complaints on the South Walnut corridor (where neighbors seem to think that anything louder than a whisper constitutes a violation of the noise ordinance and a few lingering fireworks calls, it was your typical Saturday night in town. At least nobody left town with bullet holes in them tonight...

ANOTHER SHOOTING AT ADAMS AND BARNARD

At around 19:20, a 19-year-old woman was shot in the mouth by a 21-year-old Coatesville man, who is now under arrest and will face, at a minimum, aggravated assault charges. The victim was initially transported to Chester County Hospital, however it appears that she was later transported by GFAC and Medic 91 to Crozer-Chester Medical Center as a trauma patient. The incident occured on the 400 block of East Barnard Street, less than a block and a half away from Monday's homicide. Police were in the area for a report that came in a few minutes earlier about a male subject reportedly making threats at another person. Initial reports indicate that those two incident are possibly related, but nothing has been fully confirmed just yet.

Earl Taylor Deveaux, the suspect in the shooting, is no stranger to the Chester County court system. Deveaux was arrested on September 15, 2004 on charges of Indecent Exposure, Open Lewdness, and Disorderly Conduct for an incident in the borough. On June 15, 2005, Deveaux pled guilty to Disorderly Conduct in Common Pleas Court and was sentenced to 1 year probation by Judge Gavin (CP-15-CR-0004439-2004).

On September 24, 2005, Deveaux was charged with Possession With Intent to Deliver, Possession of a Controlled Substance, and Possession of Drug Paraphanalia. Those charges were withdrawn on January 10, 2006, seemingly without explaination (15-1-01, CR-0000237-05).

Most recently, Deveaux was scheduled for trial during Judge Sarcione's upcoming trial term starting Monday on charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance from an arrest made by P/O Aaron Davis on January 10; Deveaux waived his preliminary hearing in front of Judge Bruno six days later and was free on $2,500 unsecured bail (15-1-01, CR-0000013-07; CP-15-CR-0000248-2007).

As of 05:45 this morning, no formal charges have been presented to District Court, however that will likely happen this morning, during 15-1-04's Criminal Day.This is the third major violent crime involving a firearm to be allegedly perpetrated by criminals from Coatesville in the past 14 months.

The Memorial Day 2006 shooting at Adams and Barnard which wounded one ultimately led to the arrest of William Shockley, whose trial is pending in front of Judge Nagle (CP-15-CR-0002127-2007). Shockley's preliminary hearing was covered fairly extensively on this blog less than 6 weeks ago; he was the defendant who was lucky enough be allowed to attend his prom despite the serious nature of the charges pending against him.

Then, there's Monday's homicide in which Trent Larelle Jackson, 19, was arrested and charged with First Degree Murder and related offenses.

Short of erecting "border patrol" stations and running background checks on every single resident who lives in the 19320 zip code, what the hell are we as a community supposed to do? It shouldn't be the fault of residents of West Chester (not that every resident is a model citizen) that criminals are being bred in Coatesville.

How much longer before the plague of violence spreads to other neighborhoods of the borough? And how much longer must it take before people in other neighborhoods who complain about college kids being loud and obnoxious realize that there are other - and much bigger - fish to fry as far as quality of life issues are concerned?

HOMICIDE ON SOUTH ADAMS

At 00:10, Chester County 9-1-1 recieved a report of a shooting at 317 South Adams Street, with WCPD, GFAC, and Medic 91 responding to the scene. Sgt. Jeffery Ditz requested the medics to expedite as the patient was unconsious upon his arrival. EMS arrived on the scene and requested PennSTAR #2 to fly the victim, with Engine 52-1 establishing the landing zone at the Goodwill Fire Company parking lot. Once the ambulance arrived on scene, however, the flight crew from PennSTAR reported the patient was going into cardiac arrest and was immediately transported by GFAC to Chester County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Back on South Adams, reports indicated that officers were searching for 2 males, possibly hispanic, with one wearing a black shirt and one possibly wearing a red bandana. A K-9 from Tredyffrin arrived on scene and searched the area around the National Foam Company and an industrial property to the north of the scene with negative results. Multiple police units also assisted in the search, which was still active as of 01:30 this morning.

Assisting WCPD in the investigation were West Goshen Police, Westtown-East Goshen Police, West Chester University Public Safety, Tredyffrin Police K-9, Chester County Detectives, GFAC, Medic 91, and WCFD/Goodwill Fire Co.

Though it's not officially been confirmed by investigators at this point, it would not be surprising at all if drugs were at the heart of the dispute. A couple of months ago, a man was held for trial on charges of drug possession with intent to distribute where one of the alleged sales to an undercover officer or informant took place on that block. On May 4 in District Court 15-1-04, Christian Oliveras, 21, was held for charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance With Intent to Deliver, Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Drug Paraphanalia, and Criminal Use of a Communication Facility after an undercover State Trooper testified that an confidential informant had twice gone to the Adams Street location to purchase narcotics from the defendant. (15-1-04, CR-0000127-07; CP-15-CR-0001899-2007).

Oliveras had been free on 10 percent of $50,000 bail as of last night; he was scheduled for trial in front of Judge Strietel next week on an separate case where he faced two counts of Possession with Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance, two counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance, and one count of Possession of Drug Paraphanalia in a case filed by WCPD narcotics officers (CP-15-CR-0002946-2006). There had been a motion to consolidate the two cases into a single case, though there's no indication as to whether or not the cases in fact will be heard together.

[The Daily Local News confirmed what I had suspected that Oliveras was in fact the murder victim. Police officials and prosecutors confirmed in today's editions that drugs played a role in the murder, as if that was a shock.]

District Attorney Joe Carroll and his chief deputy DA Patrick Carmody were on scene, along with Lt. Jeff Johnson and at least two county detectives. I wouldn't be shocked if more details end up coming out as the days progress, but there must be something more to it when the top two prosecutors in the county and two of that office's detectives show up on scene...

This wrapped up an unusually violent weekend in the borough, one that hasn't struck in the nearly 12 years that I've lived here. Here's hoping this isn't a sign of things to come...