2nd suspect in Wilkinsburg mass shooting sues Allegheny County for malicious prosecution

The second of two men who was accused of killing six people and an unborn child in a 2016 mass shooting in Wilkinsburg is also suing Allegheny County for malicious prosecution.

Cheron Shelton filed the complaint in federal court on Friday. Shelton’s co-defendant, Robert Thomas, filed suit last week alleging similar claims.

Police said that Shelton and Thomas opened fire on a group of family and friends during a backyard cookout the night of March 9, 2016, on Wilkinsburg’s Franklin Avenue. Five people and an unborn child died at the scene. A man who was paralyzed died from his injuries four years later.

Shelton was found not guilty of all the counts against him following a trial in early 2020. The jury deliberated for three days before reaching its verdict on Feb. 14, 2020.

Thomas’s case was thrown out by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski just hours before opening statements were supposed to start after prosecutors said they would not call a jailhouse witness against him. That left them without sufficient evidence to sustain proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

In Shelton’s lawsuit, he alleges that law enforcement officers perjured themselves to try to connect him to the crime, relied on fabricated information provided by unreliable confidential informants and withheld potentially exculpatory evidence that could have aided Shelton.

“The charges brought against Mr. Shelton were based largely on unsupported and unreliable information provided by jailhouse informants, and information manufactured by confidential informants coerced by law enforcement and the district attorney in exchange for immunity related to other crimes,” the lawsuit said.

Because of those actions, the complaint said, Shelton served four years in jail and faced the death penalty if convicted.

The lawsuit includes claims for malicious prosecution, due process violations, a civil rights conspiracy and failure to intervene.

Shelton is currently serving an eight-year federal prison term for possession of a stolen gun. Thomas is currently incarcerated at Allegheny County Jail on domestic violence charges, including unlawful restraint, strangulation and kidnapping.