Former witness in Wilkinsburg mass shooting case says he was paid to cooperate; prosecutors deny allegation

A former witness used by authorities to file homicide charges against suspects in the 2016 Wilkinsburg mass shooting case is alleging prosecutors paid him for information and encouraged him to lie, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday.

The District Attorney’s Office called the allegations a “desperate attempt” by defense attorneys to influence the jury.

The documents were filed early Friday by Randall McKinney, defense attorney for Cheron Shelton. Shelton is on trial for the March 9, 2016, shooting on Franklin Avenue that killed five adults and an unborn child at a backyard cookout. Jury deliberations began Monday. If convicted of first-degree murder, Shelton could face the death penalty.

McKinney’s filing, which called for a mistrial, alleged that an individual identified as Witness 1 came forward Feb. 3, the first day of testimony. The witness is the same man quoted in the affidavit of probable cause filed June 23, 2016, against Shelton and his former co-defendant, Robert Thomas.

Judge Edward J. Borkowski on Friday denied the motion for a mistrial and declined to hold a hearing on the issue. He sealed the motion despite McKinney’s push to make it public.

Deputy District Attorney Kevin Chernosky, in his eight-page response, called the claims offensive and said the man previously threatened to “go to the media” if he was not protected by the District Attorney’s Office. He also objected to the man being referred to as a witness because he never gave testimony during court proceedings.

“The Commonwealth denies in their entirety, allegations that (the witness) was prompted, prodded, instructed, directed or requested in any manner to provide fabricated information against Cheron Shelton,” Chernosky wrote.

Charges against Thomas were dismissed Feb. 3 after prosecutors excused their star witness against him when it came to light he had received perks for offering information in the Wilkinsburg case and a dozen others.

A transcript of an hourlong interview Feb. 5 between Witness 1, McKinney and co-counsel Wendy Williams was filed as part of the motion to dismiss.

Witness 1 told his attorneys that he became involved in the Wilkinsburg case when he had a conversation with Thomas at the Allegheny County Jail days after Thomas’ arrest on re-upped 2013 drug charges. That conversation prompted him to contact internal affairs investigators at the jail. He said he already had been cooperating in other cases.

Chernosky’s response acknowledges the witness offered information after a conversation with Thomas in jail April 6, 2016. He offered information in a 2014 homicide but did not testify, according to the filing, and the men charged were acquitted. He testified in an August 2016 homicide trial, and that defendant also was acquitted.

Chernosky said the prosecution officially informed the defense team they didn’t intend to use the witness in the Wilkinsburg case in August 2018.

The witness told McKinney and Williams that jail investigators sent him back to try to get Thomas to reveal more, according to the documents.

“I know your situation,” he said the investigator told him. “If you do this for me, I’ll get you out of this jail tomorrow.”

According to the original affidavit, Witness 1 told investigators Thomas admitted he was concerned about DNA he left near the scene after urinating in a garage.

The complaint indicates Thomas told the witness the killings were “crushing him every day.” Thomas also is alleged to have said investigators would have to “go deep sea diving” to find the gun used in the shooting and admitted he had used a handgun.

McKinney’s motion called for Assistant District Attorney Lisa Pellegrini to recuse herself.

The witness told McKinney and Williams that he met with Pellegrini on numerous occasions regarding the Wilkinsburg case and said she attempted to bully him into cooperating.

The witness alleged his first meeting with Pellegrini was hostile.

“She just straight came off at me like I was the criminal,” he is quoted as saying. “Like this whole demanding thing. Like, ‘We need to start working on your testimony. We need to get you prepared. There are going to be some questions I need to ask you. I need to make sure you answer the right questions. As you know, there is six homicides so we can’t mess this up. We can’t (expletive) this up.’”

The witness said his attorney, Chris Eyster, was in the room at the time. The witness said he didn’t want any part of the Wilkinsburg case and alleged Pellegrini told him he had to testify, saying, “If I want you to get on the stand and testify, you will be on that stand and testify.”

The witness said that at some point, he was charged by McKeesport police in a separate case and taken to the county jail and placed in an isolation cell next to Shelton.

“I don’t know how they did it, but they arranged for me to go next to him and wanted me to have a conversation with him regarding his case and gather anything that I could,” the witness told the attorneys.

He continued: “Once I got in the cell, I ended up talking to Shelton on regular stuff, and I really ain’t had no conversation with him because once I got to talk to him I didn’t want to do it. I couldn’t go through with it. And he just kept saying he was innocent and I said, man, I’m not doing this. So I didn’t even engage in the conversation other than regular conversation with him.”

The witness did not testify at Shelton’s July 29, 2016, preliminary hearing. He said he had a conversation with Pellegrini that day.

“She was like, ‘We started off bad last time. I want to make amends to all that situation,’” he told the attorneys. “She said, ‘We didn’t bring you up today. So I kept my word. I am going to keep you out of this as much as I can.’

“She’s like, ‘What do you want? I got county money. I got state money. I got federal money. I got unlimited funds for this case.’”

McKinney asked the witness whether he was compensated for his involvement in the Wilkinsburg case. He said he had been.

“I was placed in an extended hotel and at the time I was given $300,” he told the attorneys. “They said it was for my groceries, and for me to contact them every so often, every two weeks for more money to get by. So eventually they end up giving me money to get my own apartment and everything.”

McKinney asked the witness how much money he thought he was provided.

“I was given coffee money, a hundred dollars here and there if I needed something from detectives,” the witness replied. “If I needed anything. So during the process I was given different money.”