Man charged in Arnold shooting accused of asking inmate to deny his involvement

A Somerset man is accused by police of asking a fellow inmate to claim that someone else was involved in the 2018 shooting of an Arnold man during a robbery, according to court papers.

Nicholas J. Haynes, 24, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of criminal solicitation and attempted fabrication of evidence.

Haynes has been in the Westmoreland County Prison in lieu of $250,000 bond since April 27, 2018, when he was arrested on attempted homicide and related charges in connection with the Arnold shooting 15 days earlier.

He was arrested again in August 2019 after police said Haynes tried to ask the man he is accused of shooting to not testify against him.

In the latest set of charges, county detectives said Haynes gave a handwritten note to a fellow inmate in March and directed that person to write to an attorney, claiming someone else was involved in the shooting, according to court papers. Jail officials obtained the note and the inmate told police that Haynes gave it to him with the attorney’s mailing address. Investigators said Haynes admitted his involvement in the shooting to the inmate.

A document examiner at the Pennsylvania State Police crime lab confirmed the handwriting in the note matched Haynes’, according to court papers.

Trials in the attempted homicide and intimidation of witness cases are tentatively set for February, according to online court records. Police said the Arnold man was shot three times during the robbery on Kenneth Avenue and was hospitalized for several weeks afterward.

Prior to the shooting, the wounded man and three others allegedly were arranging a trip to Latrobe to buy drugs when they ran into Haynes in Arnold. Haynes was arrested two weeks later in Jeannette.

A preliminary hearing in the new case is set for Oct. 23. Haynes did not have an attorney listed in online court records in the new set of charges.