'Pain on top of pain': Teen sentenced in Brighton Heights shooting that hurt 5, upended funeral

Tamika Hornezes had already gone through the horror of her son being shot and killed in October 2022.

Thirteen days later, she was traumatized again when two shooters opened fire at his funeral in Pittsburgh’s Brighton Heights section, wounding five people.

“They ran in there like animals,” Hornezes said Tuesday during the sentencing for one of the attackers, Hezekiah Nixon. “We were supposed to be burying my son — a God-given right. We should be able to stand over my son and bury him.”

Hornezes’s voice rose as she spoke into a courtroom microphone.

“How dare they do that.”

She called the shooters “soulless.”

Shortly before being sentenced, Nixon, 19, of Pittsburgh pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, conspiracy, cruelty to animals and being a person not to possess a firearm.

As part of the plea agreement with the prosecution, he was ordered by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski to serve 11 to 22 years in state prison.

The case against Nixon’s co-defendant — Shawn Davis, 22, previously of McKees Rocks — is pending.

‘Doesn’t seem like enough’

The shooting happened just after noon on Oct. 28, 2022 as the pastor was speaking during the funeral service for John Hornezes Jr., 20, at Destiny of Faith Church.

Hornezes was one of three people who were shot and killed on Oct. 15, 2022, during what police said was a shootout between two groups. The other two victims — Jacquelyn Mehalic, 33, and Betty J. Averytt, 59 — were innocent bystanders waiting at a bus stop who were caught in the violence.

During Hornezes’ funeral, police said, 23 shots were fired, cutting the service short. Five people and a horse that was supposed to transport the casket were wounded in the gunfire.

Hornezes’ casket became part of the crime scene, Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Emma Schoedel said. Pittsburgh police officers, she said, had to serve as pallbearers.

“In Allegheny County, you should be able to bury your dead,” Schoedel said.

Those attending the funeral, Schoedel said, “should have been able to attend that service free from harm, but instead they left with gunshot wounds.

“And those attending the Destiny of Faith Church should be able to enter their place of worship without chaos and fear ensuing because of the barrage of gunfire assaulted upon them.”

Hornezes was the only witness called by prosecutors during the hearing.

She told the court that the shooting at her son’s funeral added “pain on top of pain.”

“Twenty-two years doesn’t seem like enough,” she told Nixon. “I hope you do every day of that time.”

Defense attorney Casey White told the court his client had strong family support, grew up in a loving home and was accepting responsibility for his actions.

“He’s a young man of very few words,” White said. “He understands the gravity of his actions.”

Nixon spoke only briefly in court, “I’m very sorry for what happened, your honor.”

Another shooting case

In June, Nixon also pleaded guilty to three counts of reckless endangerment and conspiracy stemming from the shooting death of Stephone Drayton, 40, on Aug. 7, 2022, when gunfire broke out along the 1500-1700 blocks of Brighton Place in Pittsburgh’s California-Kirkbride neighborhood.

Six people were charged in that case.

Rayvon Poellnitz, 23, pleaded guilty in July to third-degree murder in Drayton’s death.

The other defendants who pleaded guilty in connection with that shooting were Andrew Johnson, 29, of Coraopolis, Tylajae Allen, 24, of Pittsburgh, and Dayqual Allen, 22, and Andre Allen, 23, both of Brighton Heights.

Nixon’s sentencing in the Drayton case was deferred to Tuesday after the plea to the funeral shooting. Sasinoski, the judge, chose to not give Nixon additional prison time.