No charges to be filed in Jeannette man's 2019 killing, district attorney says

No criminal charges will be filed in connection with the October 2019 shooting outside a Jeannette home that left one man dead, Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli announced Wednesday.

Mariell McGowan, 29, an aspiring rapper and former basketball and football star at Jeannette High School, was killed and two others were injured in the shooting on Cuyler Avenue more than two years ago. Police said an earlier argument set the stage for the fatal shooting. McGowan and another man went to the home after threats were made to harm a man inside. Witnesses told police about a dozen shots were fired.

In statement, Ziccarelli described the incident as one where McGowan came to the unnamed shooter’s home “to do him harm.”

“The resident also knew that McGowan and others with him had participated in an armed home invasion and brutal assault of another man earlier that same evening,” Ziccarelli said. “The resident repeatedly told the armed men not to come to his home and that there were children in the residence. The armed men came to his home anyway. Fearing for his life and the lives of others in his home, the resident shot McGowan just outside the home.”

Ziccarelli, who took office in January, reached the same conclusion as former District Attorney John Peck, who said last year he would not prosecute a murder case in connection with McGowan’s killing. Peck previously said investigators did not receive evidence McGowan was armed, but others with him were.

McGowan’s mother, Taunja Williamson of Jeannette, lobbied Peck and Ziccarelli to prosecute the man who killed her son. She said Wednesday she was “beyond disappointed” with Ziccarelli’s decision to close the case.

“From the beginning, I believe that they didn’t want to charge anyone because of my son,” she said. “I just feel that they already had it worked out to that.”

Williamson said she is considering hiring a lawyer and she doesn’t understand how the shooting is considered self defense. Williamson said she plans to continue protests seeking justice for her son.

“I gotta let God do it,” she said.

Ziccarelli cited the Castle Doctrine in her statement to explain why homicide charges would not be filed. The Castle Doctrine is a provision of the state’s self-defense law that provides justification for the killing of an intruder on private property.

“While I am deeply sorry for Mariell McGowan’s family’s loss, I made a commitment to the people of Westmoreland County to make decisions based on the law, and not emotions. I have done so in this case. The Castle Doctrine, a doctrine of self-defense and defense of others, empowered this man to defend his life and the lives of his family members who were within the home in the manner in which he did,” Ziccarelli said.

Two Greensburg men were charged last year with hindering the investigation into the circumstances surrounding McGowan’s death.

Ronald Trotter and Michael E. Price, both 21, were charged with hindering the prosecution, obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence. Trotter also was charged with illegal possession of a gun.

Price claimed to be on Cuyler Avenue and found a wounded man was lying in the doorway after he heard gunshots ring out.

According to court records, Price said he also saw two others with gunshot wounds lying on Cuyler Avenue and that he grabbed a .40-caliber pistol and threw it out a back window of the house.

Police said a witness saw Trotter pick up the handgun and hide it under a porch on Bullit Avenue, where the weapon suspected to have killed McGowan was found.

Gunshot residue was found on Trotter through lab testing, according to police.

Trials for Price and Trotter are scheduled to begin in July.