2nd man arrested in killing of Dravosburg man in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh police have arrested a second person in connection with the January murder of a man in the city’s Elliott section.

Deonte Kidd, 28, of Perry South, is charged with hindering apprehension, destroying or concealing evidence, abuse of a corpse, tampering with or destroying physical evidence and two counts of conspiracy in the shooting death of Kenneth Lennex, 34, of Dravosburg.

Kidd is being held in Allegheny County Jail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Friday.

Le’Juane Powell, 29, of Pittsburgh, was arrested last week and faces charges of criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and illegal gun possession, police said.

At 9:19 a.m. Jan. 26, Pittsburgh police responded to reports of an unresponsive man found in a wooded area near the Herrod and Bond streets in Elliot. A witness told police they were in the area looking for deer when they located a tennis shoe and then legs on the hillside, according to a criminal complaint.

Police found a man, later identified as Lennex, wrapped in a blanket with a gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police, with the help of the FBI, tracked emergency pings on Lennex’s cellphone to a home on Kingsboro Street, the complaint said. At that address, the victim never answered any incoming calls or texts and was never heard from again.

Police obtained a search warrant for the Kingsboro Street address and found “a large amount of evidence,” police said. Inside the residence, detectives observed the presence of blood and “high-velocity blood spatter,” as well as ballistic evidence such as casings, fired bullets, ballistic damage to various locations within the residence, Colt 45 malt liquor cans and black garbage bags containing various items covered in blood.

The items in the garbage bags were packaged in an apparent attempt to discard any evidence containing blood or ballistic evidence, police said in the complaint.

Police said they also recovered two firearms: a Rossi Revolver and a Taurus pistol. Both firearms contained droplets of blood.

While on scene for the search warrant, detectives observed a silver Ford Taurus in front of the residence. Believing that a vehicle would be necessary to transport the victim’s body from his last known location on Kingsboro Street to the area where Lennex was discovered murdered, detectives obtained a search warrant to seize the Ford Taurus.

Inside the car, detectives found blood on part of the rear-passenger threshold, on the side of the rear seat and on the back of the driver’s seat, according to the criminal complaint. Evidence collected from the vehicle included two, bloody shoulder seatbelts.

When detectives lifted the rear passenger seat, they observed a large pool of blood, according to the complaint.

An autopsy determined Lennex suffered from eight gunshot wounds to the head, the criminal complaint said. Three bullets were recovered from the victim’s body during the autopsy.

A Colt 45 beer can — which matched cans detectives said they observed Powell purchasing — contained Kidd’s fingerprints and was recovered from the Kingsboro Street home, the complaint said.

Police said they also tracked phone calls between Powell and Kidd.