Men who played role in Pittsburgh garbage collector's death plead in state court

Seven members of a local gang involved in violence in Pittsburgh’s Hilltop neighborhood that led to the 2014 shooting death of a beloved garbage collector have pleaded guilty in state court.

All seven men were members of the Zhoove gang, based in Beltzhoover, which at the time was fighting with members of Darccide, a group from Arlington.

On Oct. 13, 2014, Omar Hodges was sitting in his Cadillac on Birmingham Avenue just before 7 a.m. waiting for his shift to start when 13 shots were fired at him from inside a Nissan Altima that drove away.

Hodges got out of the vehicle and was taken to an area hospital but died.

His death — which followed two days of shootings in that community — brought hundreds of city workers to his funeral and pledges from then-Mayor Bill Peduto to fight the ongoing violence.

It wasn’t until January 2019 that state court charges were filed in Hodges’ death.

The members of the Zhoove gang also were targets of a federal drug investigation, and they were charged in a sealed indictment in April 2015.

In the state court case, two people entered pleas last week, and five more pleaded on Monday before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Alexander P. Bicket.

They include:

• Corey Cheatom, 34, Chris Brown, 29, and Holman Brown, 30, who all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit third-degree murder in Hodges’ death and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault in another shooting.
• Cody Duncan, 30, who pleaded no contest to aggravated assault in another related shooting.
• Lance Gardenhire, 46, who pleaded guilty to two counts of solicitation for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in two shootings.
• Sheraun Davis, 38, and Shakeem Davis, 31, who pleaded no contest last week to conspiracy to commit aggravated assault in a related shooting. Neither of them had a significant criminal history and were both sentenced to non-reporting probation.

The five who pleaded on Monday will be sentenced at a later date. They are already serving federal prison time for their roles in the gang.

• Gardenhire is serving 20 years for selling heroin and money laundering.
• Chris Brown and Holman Brown are both serving 10 years.
• Cheatom is serving 16-1/2 years.
• Duncan is serving 10 years.

According to Deputy District Attorney Brian Catanzarite, the Cadillac that Hodges drove matched the make and model of a Cadillac driven by Angelo Massie, one of the leaders of Darccide.

The Altima, the rental car seen fleeing the scene of Hodges’ shooting in video footage at Brownsville Road and Birmingham Avenue in Carrick, had been spotted by police surveillance cameras repeatedly in the days leading up it. Cheatom’s uncle, who had rented the car, told investigators that he let his nephew use his vehicles, Catanzarite said.

During his summary of the evidence in the case, the prosecutor said that one witness who testified before the grand jury said that Cheatom “referenced ‘the garbage man’ and admitted that ‘his guys used his car’ and ‘they hit the wrong guy.’”

Carolyn Hodges, Omar Hodges’ mother, was the only person to give victim impact testimony on Monday. She nearly collapsed as she completed her statement to the court and was caught by Catanzarite, who helped her into a chair. She was later evaluated by medics. Her condition was not known Monday afternoon.

In her statement, she told the court that her son worked two jobs and was kind and generous.

“He had the best smile,” she said.

Ms. Hodges told Bicket that she has prayed about it, but that her son will not receive justice.

“There is none,” she said. “There is no amount of time. There is no justice.”

She also lamented that she’ll never have grandchildren from her son.

“He never did anything to any of you. He was kind,” Ms. Hodges said. “He went to work, and he was shot.”