Accused gunman in Wilkinsburg mass shooting might not stand trial

One of two men set to stand trial in a 2016 Wilkinsburg mass shooting will learn Monday whether he will be tried with his co-defendant or if the six counts of murder against him will be dismissed.

The trial is scheduled to begin Monday.

Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski said he needs the weekend to consider the argument that there is not enough evidence for Robert Thomas to stand trial in the death penalty case.

Thomas and Cheron Shelton both face the death penalty if convicted in the March 9, 2016, shooting that killed five adults and an unborn child.

Casey White, one of Thomas’s attorneys, requested that charges be dismissed after prosecutors said Friday they will not call their key jailhouse witness to testify against Thomas. It is the third jailhouse witness that prosecutors have had to exclude.

“The only evidence that will be presented against (Thomas) is very circumstantial at best,” White wrote.

Questions about the witness’s credibility arose last week when it came to light he offered information in a dozen other cases and was alleged to have confessed to a part in a 2013 drive-by shooting that killed a 15-month-old. It was also revealed that Allegheny County Police offered relocation services and financial assistance in exchange for information.

Deputy District Attorney Kevin Chernosky and Assistant District Attorney Lisa Pellegrini said they have enough evidence from cellphone records, video surveillance and interviews to make their case against Thomas.

White said Thomas never admitted the cellphone number police believe he used that night was his, and information gleaned from cellphone towers doesn’t necessarily place him at the crime scene. Additionally, he said, the original criminal complaint against Thomas and Shelton relied on information from two jailhouse witnesses who since have been excluded from the case.

“In short,” White wrote, “the underlying crux of the Commonwealth’s case is that (Thomas) was at or near the scene when five individuals and an unborn child were killed. To date, however, the Commonwealth has failed to produce any physical evidence or eye-witness testimony that (he) committed the crimes charged.”

White’s request for charges to be dismissed against Thomas was one of a flurry of motions filed late Thursday and Friday morning, including one overarching motion for extraordinary relief filed jointly by all four defense attorneys: White and Michael Machen for Thomas and Randall McKinney and Wendy Williams for Shelton.

That extraordinary relief included requests for the case to be dismissed, for the District Attorney’s Office to be removed from the case, for Pellegrini to be removed from the case and for the death penalty to be taken off the table.

Defense attorneys accused prosecutors of intentionally withholding evidence or waiting until the week before the trial to turn it over.

“They cannot be trusted as the gatekeepers of any discovery in this case,” the attorneys wrote. “Defendants argue that the prosecution in this case has violated its due process obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence …”

Borkowski ultimately denied that motion and others, leaving only White’s dismissal request.

Borkowski said Shelton will proceed to trial Monday morning regardless of his decision about Thomas. He cautioned that shouldn’t be taken as an indication of how he’ll rule.