Jury weighs credibility of key witness in 2021 Larimer homicide

Dennis Alexander was there when Robert Agurs was shot at a Pittsburgh gas station in 2021.

The bullet came from Alexander’s gun.

The getaway vehicle was Alexander’s rental SUV.

But two other men — Michael James and Randall Jones — were charged with criminal homicide.

As a jury began deliberating Friday following a weeklong trial, they must assess the credibility of Alexander, who is cooperating with prosecutors and testified against the defendants.

Alexander potentially faced a mandatory life prison sentence if charged and convicted of first-degree murder.

Given that Alexander is out to save himself, defense attorneys argued, should the jury believe him?

The prosecution says yes.

“Assume Dennis Alexander is more culpable in this case. How does that mean Randall Jones and Michael James aren’t implicated in this murder?” Assistant District Attorney Chase Stelzer asked the jury. “It’s Dennis Alexander that corroborates the investigation.”

Alexander told the jury that the original deal he made with prosecutors would have allowed him to plead guilty to third-degree murder for a 10- to 20-year prison term.

However, he said the grand jury chose not to indict him for homicide. Instead, he was charged with tampering with evidence and possession of a firearm.

Alexander pleaded guilty to those counts earlier this month and is expected to be sentenced after the trial’s conclusion.

Alexander said that sentence is expected to run at the same time as one he’s facing in a drug case in Beaver County.

Gangster Disciples

James, 30, of Beaver Falls, and Jones, 32, of Chicago are accused of killing Agurs, 32, of Garfield, at a Marathon gas station on Frankstown Avenue in Larimer on Jan. 16, 2021.

Alexander called it a “hit.”

Little information was written about Agur’s death at the time. Investigators brought their evidence before an Allegheny County grand jury, which operates in secrecy.

Investigators said a few hours before he was killed, Agurs was at Club VIP on Hamilton Avenue in Homewood.

The prosecution alleges that James sat outside for two hours in a black Jeep Cherokee rented in Detroit by Alexander while Jones and Alexander went inside the club.

According to the criminal complaints in the case, several men who were socializing with Jones and Alexander have ties to the Gangster Disciples, a gang based in Chicago that police said at the time had been branching out into other states.

Prosecutors did not reference the street gang during the trial after the defense argued that it would be prejudicial.

Neither the FBI nor U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh would comment on whether the gang has been active in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

A Pittsburgh police spokeswoman said there has been no indication of the gang setting up shop here.

When Agurs left the club, Jones and Alexander followed, according to police.

Stelzer told the jury that the men got into the Cherokee, which did a U-turn, and followed Agurs to the gas station.

There, Stelzer said, Jones fired 15 shots through the passenger window.

Agurs died a short time later.

‘Happened so fast’

At trial this week, Alexander testified that he didn’t know the shooting was going to occur.

In audio captured by a Ring camera Alexander had in his bedroom, he discussed the shooting during a phone call.

“That [stuff] that happened last night was straight heat,” Alexander said, according to the recording played for the jury. “They do that last night, and I was mad as hell. That’s why they didn’t tell me.”

He also said, “it all happened so fast, it was perfect.”

During the trial, the prosecution presented extensive video evidence from inside and outside the club as well as from the gas station during the shooting.

Using surveillance cameras and license plate readers, investigators were able to track the Cherokee.

Video also showed that Alexander, Jones and James went together earlier in the day to Ross Park Mall, where they shopped at Louis Vuitton.

Alexander and Jones were wearing the same clothing later that night in the club.

The district attorney’s office also presented testimony from an expert with the FBI who said that all three men’s cell phones pinged together at the mall the afternoon before the shooting and near Alexander’s house in Pittsburgh shortly after Agurs was killed.

Defense attorneys for James and Jones told jurors they should focus on the evidence they didn’t see.

The video did not make clear who was getting in and out of the Jeep that night, said Lisle Weaver, who is representing Jones.

“You don’t know who gets into the car and when,” Weaver said. “This case is devoid of scientific evidence.”

Police also didn’t find his client’s DNA in the car, Weaver said.

House of cards

Both defense attorneys focused most of their closing arguments on Alexander.

“Inevitably, this case comes down to Dennis Alexander,” Weaver said. “That’s the commonwealth’s key witness, a drug dealer, a convicted liar. That’s who they need you to believe.”

Randall McKinney, who represents James, likened the commonwealth’s case to a house of cards — built on an unstable foundation of Alexander’s testimony.

“Is Dennis Alexander the kind of person you want to believe and rely on to convict Michael James of criminal homicide?”

McKinney said that the video from outside the club never showed his client driving the Jeep that night, and that a woman who worked there and interacted with the driver failed to identify James through a photographic lineup.

“That, right there, is enough reasonable doubt,” McKinney said.

But in his closing argument to the jury, Stelzer said Alexander’s testimony corroborates what detectives learned in their investigation. He noted that James and Jones were suspects long before Alexander agreed to cooperate.

The prosecutor dismissed the defense arguments.

“They are red herrings you are being presented with to distract you,” he said.

The jury is expected to resume deliberating Monday morning.