As police fanned out across the region in the hours and days after the fatal shooting of New Kensington police Officer Brian Shaw in search of his killer, the gunman’s cousin spirited away and disposed of the suspected murder weapon, prosecutors told a Westmoreland County jury Monday.

Assistant District Attorney Jim Lazar said Lisa Danea Harrington, 33, of New Kensington met her cousin, Rahmael Sal Holt, at a nearby home, drove him out of town then returned to dispose of the gun police said was used in the Nov. 17, 2017, murder.

Harrington is on trial before Westmoreland County Judge Rita Hathaway on four counts of hindering apprehension of Holt and single charges of tampering with evidence and a firearms offense for what police said was her role in helping her cousin avoid capture following the shooting.

“She was disposing of the gun her cousin had used to kill a police officer. That gun has never been recovered as of this day,” Lazar told jurors in his opening statement to jurors Monday during the first day of Harrington’s trial.

Holt, 31, of Harrison was convicted late last year of first-degree murder and in February was sentenced to death for his role in Shaw’s murder. Police said Holt fled from a vehicle as Shaw attempted to make a traffic stop in New Kensington and shot the officer during a foot chase.

Holt, less than an hour after the shooting, enlisted Harrington to drive him to his girlfriend’s home in Harrison, according to prosecutors.

“They were in a gold van, and he was in the back seat,” testified Vanessa Portis, Holt’s former fiancee. Portis told jurors she, along with her 11-year-old niece and two dogs, then drove Holt to Pittsburgh.

Portis and Holt had attempted to marry while he was jailed following his arrest. She testified she did not know about Holt’s involvement in Shaw’s murder when she drove him to Pittsburgh and was not charged with any crimes in connection with the shooting and subsequent manhunt for Holt.

In court Monday, prosecutors showed jurors surveillance video of Shaw’s pursuit of Holt and of the fatal shooting. Jurors also saw footage that showed Holt and Harrington together at a local gas station before the shooting.

Defense attorney Adam Gorzelsky told jurors Harrington’s arrest was a result of an overzealous police investigation and what he said was a “confirmation bias” that initially targeted her as the person who disposed of the murder weapon. He suggested Harrington was the victim of a sloppy investigation that was born out of a tenacious search for Shaw’s killer.

“The commonwealth was laser-focused on what Lisa Harrington did, and they didn’t look at anything else when more evidence came in,” Gorzelsky said in his opening statement.

In pretrial filings, Gorzelsky suggested Harrington suffers from a fear of basements as a result of childhood trauma and, as a result, could not have retrieved and disposed of the suspected murder weapon as charged by prosecutors. He made no references to that potential defense during his address to the jury.

The prosecution will continue to present evidence against Harrington when her trial resumes Tuesday morning.

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