2 teens ordered to stand trial in group-home beating death

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Two teens were ordered to stand trial as adults in the beating death of a third teen at a Pennsylvania group home for troubled boys last month.

Malik Crosby, 16, and Yusuf Shepard, 15, are charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit criminal homicide in the death of 16-year-old Nicholas Grant.

Pittsburgh police contend Shepard put Grant in a chokehold while Crosby beat Grant with a vacuum cleaner that Grant had thrown at Shepard during the fight at Circle C Youth and Family Services Group Home on Jan. 10.

The defense attorneys parted ways on who was most to blame after Wednesday’s hearing.

“The main aggressor in this event was Mr. Shepard,” Crosby’s attorney, Blaine Jones, said after the hearing. “My heart goes out to Mr. Grant’s family because this shouldn’t have had to go this far.”

But Almon Burke Jr., Yusuf’s attorney, contends his client was defending himself against Grant.

Only one witness testified at the hourlong preliminary hearing, Joylynn Grant — no relation to the victim — the only counselor on duty that day. An autopsy report was also entered into evidence showing Grant died from a lack of oxygen caused by having his neck squeezed. Grant was removed from life support four days after the fight.

The counselor testified that Nicholas Grant was confronted by Shepard, who was calling him “snitches” and a rhyming expletive. Nicholas Grant returned the insult and the two began fighting, “just rasslin’, basically,” she testified.

After the initial fight ended, the staffer said Grant picked up the vacuum and threw it at Shepard, while Crosby was standing next to him. Her testimony varied as to whether the vacuum missed Shepard or grazed him, though Burke contends it was aimed at Shepard’s head, bruised his arm and was used as a “weapon” by Grant.

“That’s Nicholas becoming the aggressor,” Burke said.

At that point, Shepard grabbed Grant in a chokehold from behind and Crosby hit and kicked him, before also picking up the vacuum and striking Grant with it three or four times in the abdomen and ribs, the staffer testified.

The home has a no-contact policy for its staff members, so she called 911 while simultaneously shouting at the boys to break up the fight. At one point she heard Crosby say, “We don’t stop until the cops come.”

Nicholas Grant hit his head on a kitchen counter while in the chokehold, and largely stopped struggling, though he wasn’t knocked out, she said. Grant was turning purple before the attack ended, moments before police arrived.

The criminal homicide charge gives prosecutors the option to seek a first-degree — or premeditated — murder conviction against either or both defendants, punishable by up to life in prison, but leaves open the possibility of third-degree murder or even manslaughter.

Burke contends Shepard is guilty of one of the lesser offenses because the deadly part of the fight began after “Yusuf and Malik had already walked away.”

Grant’s family declined to comment after the hearing but their attorney, Todd Hollis, said the boy was “killed at a place that supposedly ... was established for his safety and well-being.”

The family may file a lawsuit, Hollis said.

The state Department of Human Services, which licensed the group home, and Allegheny County, which contracts with the facility, were continuing to investigate.

The home has said it won’t house anyone during those investigations.

Both defense attorneys plan to ask an Allegheny County judge to move the case to juvenile court, where any punishment would end when they turn 21.