Inmate pleads guilty to assault of prosecution witness in New Kensington murder trial

A Wilkinsburg man was ordered to serve up to a year in prison for assaulting a jail inmate who testified last year in the trial of New Kensington man convicted of first-degree murder.

Shawnti Eugene Shifflett, 27, pleaded guilty Monday to a misdemeanor charge of simple assault after Westmoreland County prosecutors dismissed felony counts of retaliation against a witness and aggravated harassment by a prisoner.

Prosecutors said Shifflett was in another prisoner’s cell for about five minutes before the inmate reported he was assaulted and sustained a bloodied face for testifying against Mario Gatti during his murder trial last October.

According to court records, the inmate claimed Shifflett repeatedly punched him and said “this ratting (expletive) is going to stop.”

Gatti is serving a life sentence after he was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2020 fatal shooting of Michael Coover Jr., 33, of Brackenridge.

Gatti claimed he shot Coover in self-defense and is appealing his conviction.

Common Pleas Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio sentenced Shifflett to serve six to 12 months in jail concurrent to the four- to eight-year prison sentence he is serving for unrelated drug offenses.