Prosecutors contend video without sound still says a lot about Wilkinsburg mass shooting suspect

Though no audio played during an hour-long video recording of Cheron Shelton’s visit with his father at the Allegheny County Jail, Shelton’s body language appeared to convey a lot.

In the beginning of the video shot April 6, 2016, his visit appears benign. About five minutes in, something shocks Shelton to the point that he leaps to his feet and briefly paces the room.

The video was played Thursday during the fourth day of testimony in the death penalty case against Shelton, 33. He is charged in connection with the March 9, 2016 mass shooting at a Wilkinsburg cookout.

At the time the video was recorded, Shelton had yet to be charged with six counts of homicide.

Police began zeroing in on him in the early days. A search warrant served on his mother’s home March 12, 2016 — three days after the shooting — turned up ammunition and a .22-caliber long gun.

He was arrested March 25, 2016, on a probation violation and receiving stolen property charges related to that gun.

About nine minutes into the video, after Shelton appears to recover from his shock. He walks back over to the glass that separates him from his father. He gestures to the phone receiver they’re supposed to use to speak to each other and then puts it down.

Soon after, he uses both hands to make the distinct motion of firing a rifle, then mimes what investigators say is akin to pulling the cord to start a lawnmower.

The pantomiming mirrored the gist of a letter he’d sent to his girlfriend’s father days earlier — a letter that was intercepted by police.

The letter to “Pops” said he’d been “working on getting rid of something” before he was arrested. It was at “Bubby’s house round the corner,” and it was “next to the lawn mowers, wrapped and ready to be tossed,” according to the letter Shelton is alleged to have written.

The shock at the five-minute mark of the recorded visit, prosecutors allege, likely came from Shelton learning his letter had been intercepted.

The trial Thursday included testimony from several of Shelton’s family members, including two sisters, his mother and his longtime girlfriend, Channel Falls.

Falls testified that she’d been hanging out with Shelton and their two children at his mother’s home on Nolan Court in Homewood. He’d just been released from jail, and he spent the day with his family and friends in other sections of the housing complex.

Falls said he dropped her and their children back at their own home about 8 p.m., and he was supposed to go get hamburger buns. Instead, she said, he didn’t return home until around 3 a.m.

“I thought he’d be back quickly,” she said. “I tried calling him.”

At 10:41 p.m., she sent him a text that read: “SMH (shaking my head). I already see where this is going. Just gonna keep calm and watch you lose everything before your very eyes.”

Less than 15 minutes later is when the shooting that killed five adults and an unborn child took place.

Falls told prosecutors the message was meant to mean that Shelton wasn’t taking their relationship seriously.

When he did come home, she said he was wearing different clothing. He told her he had thrown up on himself. She said she met him outside and took him to his mother’s house.

She testified that she was angry.

Falls told defense attorney Randall McKinney that she would not lie for Shelton in court.

Shelton’s mother, Desdrena Smith, testified that her son had had access to her four-door Lincoln Continental, which a police officer previously testified to seeing on Franklin Avenue the night of the shooting.