kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG The Blair County district attorney’s office is again considering use of a computer-generated animation during an upcoming murder trial.
District Attorney Pete Weeks referenced the animation on Monday in court where Judge Timothy M. Sullivan indicated that pretrial motions for Isiah Solomon Payne, 32, of Philadelphia, should be scheduled for mid-May.
Weeks said he thought the animation, used for the first time last year, was an effective tool in helping jurors understand what happened.
Payne is facing first-degree murder and related charges in the deaths of Natalie Washington, 52, of Altoona, and Mikal Jackson-Stevenson, 28, of Philadelphia. The man and woman were found dead May 28 inside Washington’s first-floor apartment at 2606 Beale Ave. of gunshot wounds to the head.
kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG Efforts on behalf of an Altoona teenager seeking to have second-degree murder and related charges transferred to juvenile court will resume today in Blair County Court.
Defense attorney Thomas M. Dickey, representing Logan Persing, who was 16 years old on Feb. 25, 2020, when he and two other teenagers allegedly initiated a robbery that led to the shooting death of 15-year-old Devon Pfirsching, offered witnesses Thursday in support of moving the charges out of adult court.
President Judge Elizabeth Doyle, who is convening the hearing through video transmissions, will render a decision in the future.
She has already ruled that first-degree murder and related criminal charges against Persing’s co-defendant, Owen Southerland, accused of firing the fatal shot that killed Pfirsching in the alley on the 100 block of Fourth Avenue, will remain in adult court.
kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG An Altoona man will contest first-degree murder and related charges filed against him in the November death of a 29-year-old Hollidaysburg man.
During formal arraignment in Blair County Court on Tuesday, 35-year-old Vasilios Pentsas Jr. acknowledged his entry of not-guilty pleas to his criminal charges and advised Judge Daniel J. Milliron that he wants a jury trial.
Altoona police arrested Pentsas in November and accused him of killing Andrew Ozio who was found dead on Nov. 9 in an alley on the 100 block of East Crawford Avenue.
Police said Ozio was lying in a pool of blood with three gunshot wounds, one each in his neck, chest and head. A lead pipe and three .40-caliber casings were found near Ozio’s body.
kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG An Altoona woman who engaged in the creation of child pornography through photography and sexual activities, apologized Friday in Blair County court where she was sentenced to 9.5 to 25 years’ incarceration.
“I’m sorry for my actions,” Kara Tornatore, 31, told Judge Daniel J. Milliron, who later told Tornatore that her apology rang hollow.
“You provided the opportunity for Mr. (Stephen) Apostolu to prey on these children,” Milliron said. “The court does not accept your apology.”
Milliron sentenced Apostolu in December to his recommended sentence of 12 to 25 years’ incarceration, followed by five years’ probation. His charges included aggravated indecent assault of a child, indecent assault and numerous counts of manufacturing child pornography, possession of child pornography and trafficking of minors.
ifredregill@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG A 40-year-old Johnstown man with a long history of drug abuse said Tuesday that selling drugs allowed him to support his own habit.
“I was using drugs for a long time,” Malik Lydil Johnson told Judge Wade Kagarise, who handed down a sentence of six to 14 years based on Johnson’s plea to criminal charges in five heroin sales inside Blair County.
“This is the first time in my life that I’ve wanted to change,” Johnson told Kagarise.
Johnson has been housed in the Blair County Prison since his Aug. 2, 2018, arrest outside the food court of the Logan Valley Mall where he sold heroin laced with fentanyl to a confidential informant for $250. It was the fifth sale police reported witnessing during an investigation that began in June 2018.