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New Wilmington teen faces 7 felonies in triple homicide
Search continues for one other suspect
By JUSTIN DENNIS
NEW CASTLE, Pa.
A young girl told city police she saw Steven Procopio shoot her mother and her 10-year-old sister – then saw Procopio level the gun at her, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday afternoon.
Procopio, 19, of Canterberry Road, New Wilmington, faced arraignment Thursday on seven first- and third-degree felony counts including criminal homicide and conspiracy to commit criminal homicide.
Lawrence County Judge Scott McGrath ordered Procopio to be held without bail in the Lawrence County jail. Procopio did not enter a plea.
Procopio is the first suspect arrested in the Tuesday shooting deaths of 10-year-old Amariah Emery, her mother, 31-year-old Nichole Pumphrey and 31-year-old Lawrence Cannon at Pumphrey’s West North Street home.
Procopio told police he was not the triggerman, however, instead pointing to another man whom he said intended to rob the three that night and has since left the state, according to the criminal complaint prepared by city police and filed in Lawrence County court.
During his Thursday arraignment, Procopio answered Judge McGrath’s questions meekly and reacted little, except to shake his head dismissively when read the homicide charges.
Police Chief Robert Salem on Thursday confirmed reports that investigators are seeking one other suspect, though he said the department initially withheld that information to protect the four surviving children who were on the upper floor of the home during the shooting – some of whom are also Pumphrey’s children, Salem said.
One of the children who spoke to ambulance personnel Tuesday morning said she “heard two thumps” while laying in bed the night prior. Her sister then went downstairs and called out to others in the home, she said – then came another “thump” and then “everything was quiet.”
She said “she thought everything was OK so she went to sleep,” the complaint states.
Another girl said she followed Amariah down the staircase to the first floor, toward the gunshots, and saw Procopio point a “little black gun” and shoot Amariah.
She “stated that Steven then ‘triggered’ on her and she ducked. [She] stated that she ran back up into the bedroom,” the complaint states.
She later identified Procopio as the shooter during a photo lineup, the complaint states.
One girl who later ventured downstairs said she found Pumphrey with what she saw as “ketchup all over her face” and with Pumphrey’s youngest child sitting on top of her. She said she found Pumphrey’s phone and called a relative.
The complaint states officers who responded to the home just before 9 a.m. Tuesday found Pumphrey and Cannon seated on the living room couch on the first floor of the home, both with gunshot wounds to the left side of the face. Officers found Amariah at the base of a nearby staircase, also shot in the face. They also found .40-caliber shell casings near each.
The children identified two people who were at the home the day prior: Procopio and a woman they referred to as “Aunt Jody” – presumably Jody Hammer, 41, who Procopio on Thursday said was “like my mother” and with whom he lived at the Canterberry Road home.
One girl said she learned Procopio had a gun but began to cry, saying “Jody” would “kill her” for telling that to others, according to the complaint.
Pumphrey had just recently moved to the home, Salem said. He has said investigators believe Procopio babysat Pumphrey’s children.
Police also arrested Hammer late Wednesday in connection to a small marijuana growing operation found in the home during Procopio’s arrest.
Police have yet to bring homicide charges against other suspects.
After his arrest, Procopio denied being at the West North Street home, then claimed another man – whom police also interviewed but released – had pulled the trigger. He said he and that man went to the house the day of the shooting. The other man said he “had to take care of some business” and told Procopio to watch for passersby. He said he presumed the man intended to rob Pumphrey.
Procopio said he stood in the threshold of the doorway, but closed his eyes when the man pulled the gun from his waistband and began firing, the complaint states. He later told police where the man had stashed the gun, but officers did not locate it.
The day after the shooting, Procopio said he and Hammer drove that man to Cleveland, where he boarded a bus bound for Michigan.
Procopio is set for a preliminary hearing Nov. 1 in Lawrence County Central Court.