Homicide charges filed in 2017 slaying of Parks Township couple

New charges were filed Wednesday in a 2017 double homicide in Parks Township.

Charges were filed against Kevin Lamont Ware, who is from the Washington, D.C., area, in connection with the deaths of Dawayne Klingensmith and Heather Swiklinski.

In November 2017, Klingensmith, 29, and Swiklinski, 22, were found dead on the upstairs floor of their home in Parks Township. Autopsies found that Klingensmith and Swiklinski were shot to death. Swiklinski’s then-1-year-old son was found unharmed in his crib in the house.

The child, Tavion, was being cared for by Swiklinski’s mother, Lizzie, in the aftermath. She told the Trib in 2018, a year after the homicides, that her daughter was a fun-loving mother who loved her son.

At a news conference Wednesday with state investigators, Armstrong County District Attorney Katie Charlton said investigators believe the shooting was drug-related. Ware is believed to have lived in the Pittsburgh region at the time of the incident.

Charlton said Ware is in custody in the Washington area. A preliminary hearing date has not yet been set.

“We’ll have to go through the extradition process, so I can’t give a time frame,” Charlton said. “He will come here, to Armstrong County.”

Charlton said Ware is charged with two counts of criminal homicide, two counts of robbery and single counts of burglary, criminal trespassing, being a person not allowed to possess a firearm, carrying a gun without a license and reckless endangerment because of the presence of the child.

The criminal complaint against Ware was not made available Wednesday because Ware had not yet been arraigned, according to District Judge James Andring’s office. Charlton could not be reached Wednesday for more information.

Shannon Klingensmith Lasko, Dawayne Klingensmith’s sister, declined to comment Wednesday.

Donna Klingensmith, Dawayne Klingensmith’s mother, has said that someone broke into the house about two weeks before Klingensmith and Swilinski were killed and used a TV to beat them.

State police troopers had said that more than five gunshots were fired in the house. Klingensmith’s handgun was found in the house. Records show he wasn’t legally allowed to have one.

Earlier arrest

Five months after the homicides, police arrested George Leonard Peace of Apollo. He was charged with hiding a handgun believed to have been used in the homicides. Police have said at least two guns were fired, but only one was found in the home.

Peace’s attorney, Greg Swank, has said his client is innocent. The most recent entry in Peace’s online court docket is from May, and Swank said no trial was ever scheduled. Peace has, in fact, been free for several months, Swank said.

The gun Peace is alleged to have hid was never found or connected to the killings, Swank said. In light of Wednesday’s development, Swank said he and Peace are hopeful that all suspicion surrounding Peace will be dismissed.

“We’re glad that they caught the person they think did it,” Swank said. “And from what Mr. Peace tells me, he has no idea who this person is.”