Charges filed in New Castle’s fifth homicide case of 2011

Staff report

NEW CASTLE, Pa.

A New Castle, Pa., man is in Lawrence County jail without bond after his arraignment on a homicide charge in the Sept. 14 shooting death of Zamara Stelter.

Dajuan M. Dawson, 24, surrendered to city police at 7:30 a.m. Friday and was arraigned by District Justice Melissa Amodie on charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, possessing a gun without a license, reckless endangering and simple assault.

Stelter, 35, was shot in the head after attempting to break up a fight between two women outside 1107 Pin Oak Drive in the Crestview Gardens apartments on Sept. 13, police said.

Stelter died of the gunshot wound early the next day in St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown.

Stelter was New Castle’s fifth homicide victim this year. All five victims died of gunshot wounds.

The first and second were Jan. 21, when Ljuba Novosel, 40, turned a gun on her 12-year-old son, Tomislav Novosel, and her 81-year-old mother, Anka Denk, at the family’s South Mercer Street home, and then killed herself.

Jason Pegg, 32, of East Street, was fatally shot Aug. 24. His landlord, Kevin Boyer, 38, is charged in that crime.

Gordon Rees, 31, was fatally shot on Williams Street in an Aug. 30 road rage incident. Markus Solomon, 18, is charged in that shooting.