GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC Trial nears for teen accused in homicide

The two teens are being tried as adults but don't face the death penalty.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- The first of two teens accused of killing a George Junior Republic night security counselor will go to trial this month.
Jury selection is set to begin Oct. 18 for Jeremy Melvin, 17, of McKeesport, on charges of criminal homicide, robbery, theft, conspiracy, aggravated assault and escape in the Nov. 10, 2003, slaying of Wayne Urey, 43, of Mercer, in a residential cottage at George Junior, a detention and education center near Grove City for juveniles.
Anthony Machicote, 17, of North Versailles, Pa., charged with the same crimes, will go to trial in November.
The two teens had been sent to George Junior by a court.
The decision to try them separately is based on incriminating statements they gave to authorities about each other, said James Epstein, Mercer County district attorney.
Both are being tried as adults but this isn't a death penalty case. Epstein said their ages and the circumstances of the slaying prevented his office from seeking the death penalty.
What's alleged
Court documents say the two hatched a plan to run away from George Junior by stealing the vehicle of a staff member.
On the day Urey died, he was the night security counselor assigned to the cottage in which Melvin and Machicote lived with a group of other boys.
Testimony presented at a preliminary hearing for the pair showed they attacked Urey during the early morning hours, left him bound and gagged in a bedroom, took the keys to his pickup truck and $30 from his wallet and fled.
They drove to Pittsburgh, where they turned themselves in later in the day after learning Urey was dead, authorities say.
Hearing testimony revealed that Melvin admitted putting a choke hold on Urey during the attack and that Machicote admitted striking the counselor.
An autopsy showed Urey died of asphyxiation consistent with suffocation and strangulation. He also had multiple rib fractures, injuries to the head, body and extremities, fractures to the bones in his neck and various bruises and scratches.