Wednesday, November 14, 2018
By JUSTIN DENNIS
NEW CASTLE, Pa.
The second suspect in a triple homicide last month in the city was denied bail during his arraignment.
Anthony L. Cooper Jr., 19, of Detroit, cried after appearing Tuesday before Judge Jennifer Nicholson of Lawrence County District Court and hearing his eight felony charges – three counts each of criminal homicide and conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, one count of attempted criminal homicide and one count of carrying an unlicensed firearm.
He did not enter a plea.
Cooper was one of three people questioned in the shooting deaths of 10-year-old Amariah Emery, her mother, Nichole Pumphrey, 31, and Lawrence Cannon, 31, on Oct. 16 at Pumphrey’s West North Street home. But Cooper boarded a bus bound for Michigan the following day after being released without charges.
Jody Hammer, 41, of New Wilmington, also is charged with obstructing justice after being accused of driving Cooper to the bus station in Cleveland. She waived her preliminary hearing Tuesday.
U.S. Marshals arrested Cooper weeks later, and he waived his extradition hearing back to Lawrence County. He is in the Lawrence County jail and is set for a preliminary hearing Nov. 21 in district court.
A criminal complaint alleges after the three were killed, Cooper fired his gun at a 7-year-old girl but missed. That 7-year-old girl, the only known witness to the slayings, told police she saw Cooper’s alleged accomplice, 19-year-old Steven Procopio, of New Wilmington, shoot her mother, Pumphrey, and her sister, Emery, before pointing the gun at her.
Procopio pleaded not guilty before Judge David Rishel during a Tuesday preliminary hearing on his seven felony charges – three counts each of criminal homicide and conspiracy to commit criminal homicide and one count of carrying an unlicensed firearm, the latter of which the court later downgraded to a first-degree misdemeanor.
Judge Rishel ultimately bound his charges over to Lawrence County Common Pleas Court.
The 7-year-old said both Procopio and Hammer were at the West North Street home the day before the shootings, testified Detective Brandon Hallowich, one of the department’s four detectives, all of whom were assigned to the case.
Hallowich said Procopio told police after his arrest he believed Cooper intended to rob the family, and they drove past their home earlier that night. “Cooper said he wanted to see if anyone was there,” the detective said.
Though Procopio claimed Cooper pulled the trigger, the 7-year-old reportedly identified Procopio as the shooter, among seven other photos.
“We were looking for her to identify someone first because she was the only known witness at the time and our best chance of identifying someone,” Hallowich said.
Judge Rishel intently watched video recordings of forensic interviews of the girl, who survived the shootings on the second floor of the home along with three other young children age 1 to 10 years old.
She told the interviewer she heard Pumphrey shout at someone on the first floor of the home before hearing “two thumps.” When the interviewer stepped away to confer with detectives, the girl asked for crayons.
Procopio’s attorney, John Bongivengo, repeatedly objected to entering testimony based on the 7-year-old’s account, and argued the girl’s trial competency had not been evaluated. Judge Rishel overruled him on each objection.
Bongivengo pointed to inconsistencies in statements made by the four young children in the home.
He added “the evidence just isn’t there” for conspiracy charges and moved to dismiss all charges.
Investigators have not recovered the firearm used in the shootings.