3 men charged in Larimer slaying headed to court after 7-hour hearing

Three Pittsburgh men accused of killing a Woodland Hills High School football standout last year during a drug deal that escalated into an execution are headed to court.

After a marathon, seven-hour preliminary hearing Friday, District Judge Lisa Caulfield sent charges in the fatal shooting of Gavin Yarbough, 21, to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

She withdrew firearms charges against two of the defendants.

Prosecutors said Friday that Marcus Johnson, 23, John Melvin Kyles, 20, and Zion White, 21, helped stage a drug deal and robbery Sept. 16 in Pittsburgh’s Larimer neighborhood over just $25 in marijuana.

Prosecutors used words like “ambush” and “execution” to describe what followed.

When Yarbough arrived on Meadow Street in a car around 10:50 p.m., gunfire quickly erupted; prosecutors said just 50 seconds passed between the last text sent about the drug deal and the four-round ShotSpotter alert to police.

Yarbough was shot in the head, neck and torso, police said. The person he was with rushed him to UPMC Presbyterian hospital, where he died just six minutes after arriving.

Pittsburgh police arrested Kyles on April 25 and Johnson a month later. White was arrested last month. All three men were charged with homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, robbery and other counts.

On Friday, attorneys defending all three men asked the judge to dismiss all charges, saying prosecutors offered no physical evidence that tied their clients to the crime.

There were no eyewitnesses to the murder, said attorney William H. Difenderfer, who represents White. Nobody could place any of the men at the scene that night.

A Pittsburgh police detective testified that three guns were fired that night and only one was recovered.

But investigators didn’t find the defendants’ fingerprints on that gun or at the scene, Difenderfer stressed.

“You’ll agree with me that what we’ve heard today is that there wasn’t one piece of evidence implicating my client?” Difenderfer asked Pittsburgh police Detective Ryan Del Vecchio, who testified for more than four hours.

“Correct,” Del Vecchio responded.

“No evidence he’s in the vehicle? “Difenderfer added.

“No,” Del Vecchio said.

Allegheny County Assistant District Attorney Alexa Roberts maintained that putting together the circumstantial evidence gave a full picture of what happened that night.

Cellphones revealed there were 45 text messages exchanged between Yarbough and White on the night of the shooting, Roberts said.

A 21-minute collection of video clips stitched together from multiple cameras showed where the three men drove on the night of the shooting in a silver Chevy Malibu registered to Kyles, Roberts said.

There were messages on Instagram and texts about whether to pay for the drugs with Zelle or CashApp, she added. Kyles’ phone showed he searched the Internet dozens of times about Yarbough’s death less than 24 hours after the shooting.

Roberts also pointed to video that showed three individuals walking near a car on the night of the shooting.

“It’s clear these individuals in that vehicle are three young men that match the descriptions of the defendants,” Roberts said.

Caulfield handed down her decision shortly after 7:15 p.m.

“This is a difficult one,” Caulfield said. “While all the defense counsel noted the evidence was circumstantial, circumstantial was good enough — legally.”

The hearing also tilted into the dramatic. A witness wept and shook as they struggled to recall details about what happened that night.

Roberts, the assistant DA, said the trauma of Yarbough’s death had triggered memory loss in the witness.

The witness testified that they didn’t remember where they drove that night or what Yarbough planned to do at the meeting. They said they didn’t remember why they stopped the car while trying to rush Yarbough to the hospital.

“I just remember shots, I just remember loud shots,” the witness testified. “It was just — it was very fast. I remember the shots. I remember that and rushing to the hospital.”

Roberts pressed the witness on details for more than half an hour. The witness said they didn’t know or recall the answers at least 16 times.

“I’m sorry — I’m very traumatized by this situation,” the witness said at one point. “I’m trying my best. “

Attorney Owen Seman, who represents Kyles, paused the hearing and briefly left the courtroom to contact his wife about missing an event with their daughter.

“Your daughter’s alive!” someone shouted, as others booed, from the side of the courtroom where eight of Yarbough’s friends and relatives sat.

“We’ll clear the whole courtroom if everyone doesn’t stop talking right now!” a sheriff’s deputy barked in response.

Details also got mixed up as the afternoon went on. About four hours in, Del Vecchio started referencing Kyles’ vehicles as a Chevy Impala — not a Malibu.

Pittsburgh police Detective Edward Fallert testified that investigators found spent bullet casings about 25 to 50 feet away from the scene. Del Vecchio later referenced 150 feet.

At one point, Seman told Roberts, the prosecutor, that she was repeating questions to her witness she already had asked.

The hearing, which started an hour late, ended quietly. Yarbough’s family and friends left the courthouse before speaking with reporters. So did those sitting on the defendants’ side of the courtroom.

Yarbough graduated from Woodland Hills High School in 2021. He played defensive back, and in his senior year, he was named an all-conference football player for the Woodland Hills Wolverines.

The three defendants are set to be arraigned on Aug. 18.