Emotions high as trial of New Kensington officer's accused killer begins

Rahmael Sal Holt insists he didn’t kill New Kensington police Officer Brian Shaw two years ago, but his lawyers won’t have to prove or say who did, according to a legal expert who identified a potential defense strategy for the capital murder trial slated to start Monday morning.

Bruce Antkowiak, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at Saint Vincent College, said the prosecution will have to prove that Holt shot Shaw while the defense won’t take on a burden to prove anything.

“They will be very careful not to suggest it’s their job to do that,” Antkowiak said of a possible defense strategy. “They will insist on keeping the burden where the law puts it in the first place. It’s nothing like the fantasies you see on TV or in the movies. It’s deadly serious.”

Opening statements and testimony in Holt’s first-degree murder trial is scheduled to start 9 a.m. before Westmoreland County President Judge Rita Hathaway. It’s expected to last up to nine days.

“You don’t get a more serious prosecution than this, and this is obviously something that both sides have been gearing up for for a long time,” Antkowiak said. “The emotions of this case are as high as anybody could possibly imagine. It will be an intense number of days as the evidence unfolds.”

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck and Assistant District Attorney Jim Lazar are prosecuting the case.

Holt is represented by court-appointed attorneys Tim Dawson and Jim Robinson.

A jury of nine women and three men, with two men and two women as alternates, was chosen over two days last week.

If Holt is convicted of first-degree murder, prosecutors will ask the same jury to sentence Holt to death by lethal injection.

Holt, 31, of Harrison is alleged to have shot Shaw, 25, when he fled from a traffic stop on Leishman Avenue on Nov. 17, 2017. Police say Holt was a passenger in an SUV driven by Tavon Harper, which Shaw tried to stop for a traffic violation.

A native of Lower Burrell and 2010 graduate of Burrell High School, Shaw was a rookie on the New Kensington force, having been hired in June 2017.

Prosecutors say Holt, previously convicted on drug charges and not allowed to possess a weapon, was an armed drug dealer who shot Shaw to avoid being arrested and subjected to a lengthy prison sentence.

Holt was apprehended Nov. 21, 2017, four days after the shooting, in the Hazelwood section of Pittsburgh.

While prosecutors will argue Holt fled and hid because he was guilty, Dawson said Holt, who is black and accused of killing a white police officer, feared for his own life, guilty or not.

“In a perfect world, he would turn himself in,” Antkowiak said. “We don’t live in a perfect world.”

The gun used to kill Shaw was never found. Prosecutors are expected to present evidence Holt was previously seen brandishing a .40-caliber handgun like the one used to kill Shaw.

“The defense is going to be suggesting the reason the gun hasn’t been located is because it was used by somebody else,” Antkowiak said. “The prosecution’s theory will be he disposed of the gun because of a consciousness of what he had done.

“Prosecutors would love to have the murder weapon and show it to the jury. Not having it creates an issue, but it’s not necessarily an insurmountable one.”

Prosecutors say Holt intended to rob Harper. Harper is expected to be a key prosecution witness. About 70 potential witnesses are expected to be called to testify.

Dawson said the defense plans to attack Harper’s credibility and will claim he did not see the shooting.

“The question is: Have they charged the right man?” Dawson said. “They do not have a murder weapon. Mr. Holt has maintained his innocence from Day 1. He did not confess or give any statements. They have no eyewitness to the shooting.”

Whether or not Holt will testify will be decided after prosecutors rest their case, Dawson said. He described Holt as anxious, but ready for trial.

“He’s anticipating the trial as many have for a long time,” he said.

Peck did not respond to a request for comment or offer a statement Friday.

New Kensington Mayor Tom Guzzo called this “a very solemn, emotional and anxious time” for the city.

“We have to concentrate on two things — you have to have faith that justice will be served, and we have to support the Shaw family, who over the last two years have acted with such tremendous dignity and grace as they have handled this unimaginable tragedy every day,” he said.

Les Neri, president of the Pennsylvania State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, said it is hoped justice to be served.

“We had a young officer in the very beginning stages of his career, out on what people seem to think of as routine patrol, making a routine car stop,” he said. “In police work, we know nothing’s routine. Just because he was doing his job he ended up with a known criminal turning and firing shots and taking his life.”

No black people were in the jury pool. Holt was the only black person in the courtroom on both days of jury selection.

That’s concerning to Tim Stevens, chairman and CEO of The Black Political Empowerment Project. Stevens said it’s possible in a county with less than 3% black population that the jurors don’t know any African Americans and their only view of black people is from what they see on television news — young black males in handcuffs.

Jurors will need to make a “special effort” to filter out those images, Stevens said.

“We are probably decades away, if we ever get there, of race not having a significant importance in a trial of this nature,” he said. “People say, ‘I don’t see color.’ That’s just not correct. We all see color.”

“This has nothing to do with his innocence or guilt,” Stevens said. “It’s just a reality.”

Based upon juror responses during the selection process, Dawson said he believes Holt will get a fair trial, but “that remains to be seen.”

“I was surprised at how many people responded during the jury selection that they had never heard of this case,” Dawson said. “This is a highly publicized case. There have been numerous memorials and fundraisers. Brian Shaw’s name has been in the news for two years.

“Rahmael Holt’s face, escorted by sheriff deputies, has been in the media for the last two years. Yet we still have many potential jurors indicate they never heard of the case, which is quite surprising.”