Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes

Author: Vinny Vella

  • What Joe Khan, Bucks County’s first Democratic DA, says he’ll do when he takes office in January

    What Joe Khan, Bucks County’s first Democratic DA, says he’ll do when he takes office in January

    With the election behind him and the top law enforcement job in Bucks County ahead, Joe Khan says he’s ready for his next challenge.

    In January, Khan, a former federal prosecutor and onetime Bucks County solicitor, will become the first Democrat to serve as district attorney in the county since the end of the Civil War. (That’s not counting Ward Clark, a Republican who switched parties to run as a Democrat in 1965 and immediately switched back to his GOP roots after he won.)

    Khan, 50, is also the first candidate from outside the district attorney’s office to win the top post after several decades in which voters routinely replaced outgoing district attorneys with successors from among inside the ranks of the office.

    To claim that mantle, Khan decisively beat Jen Schorn, the Republican incumbent and a career prosecutor in the district attorney’s office, winning 54% of the vote in the November election, which broke a 20-year record for voter turnout.

    County political leaders say Khan’s victory signals voters’ desire for regime change in the once GOP-dominated suburb.

    They point to Khan’s win, along with fellow Democrat Danny Ceisler’s victory over controversial Republican Sheriff Fred Harran — whose plan to have his deputies assist federal authorities in immigration enforcement sparked protests and a lawsuit — as a rebuke to President Donald Trump.

    “Democrats came out because they felt like it was necessary to push back on what Trump was doing,” said State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, the chair of the Bucks County Democratic Party. “And in the case of Joe, they recognized him as someone who is going to stand up to an administration that has shown it’s willing to flout the law.”

    Khan, for his part, says politics is in the rearview mirror as he prepares for his new job.

    “I don’t care what political party you’re from, I don’t care who you voted for president or for district attorney,” he said in a recent interview. “What I care about is that you’re here to support the mission of keeping Bucks County safe and seeking justice every day.”

    Joe Khan greets and signs a poster for supporter Phyllis Rubin-Arnold as he waits for a meeting with the Buckingham Township Police chief. Khan says that politics has no role in his plans for the district attorney’s office.

    He said he respects Schorn’s work and that of her colleagues in the office, winning prosecutions in high-profile cases, like the trial and conviction of Justin Mohn, who beheaded his father and displayed his severed head in a YouTube video that went viral. Khan also praised the improvement Schorn and her colleagues have made to diversionary programs like drug and veterans courts.

    And he said he would expand that work — Khan tapped Kristin McElroy, one of Schorn’s top deputies, to serve as his first assistant.

    Drawing on his experience in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia, Khan said he would pursue environmental crimes and prosecute cases involving violations of workers’ rights.

    “We have seen all kinds of advances in terms of the powers that DAs have in Pennsylvania, so I think it’s great to have an opportunity to look at things with fresh eyes,” he said.

    Khan grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, where his father settled after emigrating from Pakistan. Like his brother, State Rep. Tarik Khan (D, Philadelphia), he took an early interest in public service. He followed those aspirations to Swarthmore College and, later, the University of Chicago Law School.

    Khan said he was drawn to Bucks County later in his career, and has made it his home in the 14 years he has lived with his sons, Sam, 14 and Nathan, 11, in Doylestown Township. He and the boys’ mother are divorced but co-parent amicably, he said, and live a few doors down from each other.

    After stints in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office — where he specialized in prosecuting gun crimes and locking up child predators — Khan ran for the top prosecutor’s job in Philadelphia in 2017, losing the race to Larry Krasner.

    Joe Khan (center) is seen here in March 2023 alongside County Commissioners Diane M. Ellis-Marseglia and Robert J. Harvie Jr. as they announced a lawsuit filed against multiple social media companies for “fueling a mental health crisis among young people.”

    Three years later, Khan took over as Bucks County solicitor. He developed an interest in local politics, he said, after watching the culture-war debates over library books and allegations of abuse that embroiled the Central Bucks School District, where his kids are enrolled.

    “It’s really central to my view of what parents need from their government,” he said. “They need people in roles like this that are going to make life easier, not harder, and that are going to help them with the challenges that they’re facing.”

    Not long after taking over the office, Khan challenged Trump’s efforts to dismiss mail-in ballots during the 2020 election. He also waged legal battles, taking on companies including 3M, DuPont, and Tyco by filing lawsuits over the “forever chemicals” that had leached their way into residents’ water supplies.

    And he made headlines for joining a national lawsuit against social media giants like TikTok, bidding them to address the mental health of their young users.

    When now-Gov. Josh Shapiro left the state attorney general’s office, Khan stepped down to join a crowded primary to replace him, running in 2023 on a platform to “continue what has been a lifelong fight to keep people safe.”

    After losing that race, Khan set his sights on the top law enforcement job in his new home, challenging the long-standing Republican machine that had controlled it for decades.

    “I think that if you do a good job and you let people know why you’re doing the things that you’re doing, whether or not they agree with you on every political position, if they know that you’re honest, you got a pretty good shot at earning their vote,” he said.

    “And I think that’s a big part of how we won this election.”

    A voter walks past the election lawn signs, including one for Joe Khan and his running mate, Danny Ceisler, outside the Bucks County Senior Citizens polling location in Doylestown on Nov. 4.

    Santarsiero, the county Democratic Party chair, said he was confident that Khan would make a fine district attorney.

    Winning the post required political prowess, of course, but he said that is a dichotomy unique to the office: Politics are required every four years to secure a position that is apolitical.

    Party affiliation aside, he said, Khan would work for the good of the county.

    Khan, for his part, says he is ready to give it his all.

    “We are here to keep people safe, and we’re going to do that in new and exciting ways,” he said. “I have my values, I wear them on my sleeve, and I’m very clear about the direction that we’re going to go to make sure that people who deserve a healthy environment for their families are getting a higher level of service than they’re used to.”

  • The new Delco DA talks victories, ambitions, and the importance of mentorship

    The new Delco DA talks victories, ambitions, and the importance of mentorship

    Tanner Rouse will be Delaware County’s new top law enforcement officer, but he’s not new to the work.

    Rouse will be sworn in on Jan. 5 as district attorney after his predecessor, Jack Stollsteimer, steps down to assume the county judgeship he won in November. Rouse, 42, will finish out the final two years of Stollsteimer’s term after working as his first assistant since 2020.

    In a recent interview, Rouse discussed the strides in reducing violent crime he and his colleagues have made under Stollsteimer — the first-ever Democrat to serve as district attorney in Delaware County — as well as how he plans to continue those advances.

    The short answer: Keeping the same playbook, but “putting a personal stamp on it,” as an offensive coordinator does when he takes over as head coach, said Rouse, an avid Eagles fan and ambitious Little League coach.

    A former Philadelphia prosecutor under Seth Williams, Rouse credited the lessons he learned from investigating gun violence in the city, along with the recruitment of several former colleagues he brought over the county line, with improving the way crime is prosecuted in Delaware County.

    “We have demonstrated you can reform the criminal justice system and that it doesn’t have to come at the expense of stopping violent crime,” Rouse said. “They’re not mutually exclusive.”

    Who is Tanner Rouse?

    Rouse, a Phoenixville-area native, is the son of the late Willard Rouse III, the prominent Philadelphia developer behind One and Two Liberty Place. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin and Fordham Law School, Rouse spent seven years in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, prosecuting crimes in Center City and North Philadelphia.

    Rouse left the office in 2017, months before Larry Krasner took over. He practiced civil law for a time and ran an ultimately failed campaign to unseat then-State Sen. Tom McGarrigle before Stollsteimer called and offered him the first assistant job.

    At the time, Rouse said, the offer was unexpected. But, looking back, he now considers it one of the greatest opportunities of his career.

    What is Rouse most proud of from his tenure as first assistant?

    The most notable achievement of his tenure to date in the district attorney’s office, Rouse said, is the steep reduction of gun violence in Chester. Shootings are down 75% since 2020. Rouse credits community outreach efforts for that, especially through the Chester Partnership for Safe Neighborhoods program, overseen by veteran homicide prosecutor Matt Krouse, whom Rouse worked with in Philadelphia and recruited to join him in Delaware County.

    The partnership’s fundamental philosophy is a combination of focused deterrence programs Rouse helped oversee in Philadelphia that target repeat offenders, as well as community outreach efforts run by trusted neighborhood figures.

    Rouse said he never wanted to be a faceless presence in the county and made it his priority to get out and form relationships in all of the municipalities he served, visiting community meetings, block parties, and even a few pickup basketball games.

    “I don’t do this job from behind a desk,” he said, speaking in his county courthouse office. “And I think demonstrating that commitment and that care by being more present in those communities, and not just being kind of the big, scary law enforcement agency on a hill is incredibly important.”

    Rouse said he is proud of other reforms including creating a diversionary unit in the office, revamping its drug court and instituting a special “child’s court,” created by Kristen Kemp — Rouse’s chosen first assistant and an expert in special-victims’ cases — that allows young victims to testify against adult offenders in a more comfortable environment.

    The county’s jail population is down 50% as well, something Rouse says is a result of approaching prosecuting crimes in a humane, logical way.

    What are his priorities as district attorney?

    Rouse said he plans to create a similar community outreach program in Upper Darby, a community he said is “on the verge of some big things.”

    “It’s not as if we’re saying, ‘We’re coming in here to take on Upper Darby and what goes on there,’ but more of, ‘Guys, look, we’re not just the people you pick up and call when there’s a crime.’”

    He also expressed interest in creating reciprocity agreements with his counterparts in the other collar counties around Philadelphia, specifically when it comes to handling drug cases and providing treatment to the people caught up in them.

    How has his time in Philadelphia influenced his work in Delco?

    Rouse said he cut his teeth in the city working alongside veteran prosecutors, and he’s worked to bring that environment of mentorship to Delaware County.

    He said he and his more senior deputies often sit in on trials, giving feedback to younger staff members just as his mentors did for him nearly two decades ago.

    “That’s how I got better, and that’s one of the roles I most cherish here,” he said.

  • A West Philly man was convicted of first-degree murder for a fatal blaze in Delco

    A West Philly man was convicted of first-degree murder for a fatal blaze in Delco

    A West Philadelphia man who set a fatal fire in the midst of a tumultuous breakup, killing his ex-girlfriend’s disabled sister, was convicted Friday of first-degree murder.

    A Delaware County jury ruled that Aaron Clark, 20, set the the December 2022 blaze in Darby Township that killed Olivia Drasher, the wheelchair-bound sister of his ex-girlfriend, Amira Rogers. He was also found guilty of four counts of attempted murder, one each for the other occupants in the home at the time.

    The fire was set on the home’s porch, directly below Drasher’s bedroom, just after midnight. At the time, Drasher, her sister, their mother and Drasher’s full-time nurse were sleeping inside.

    Hours before the fire, Rogers ended her relationship with Clark after he choked her during an argument over his alleged infidelity, according to testimony during the five-day trial before Delaware County Court Judge Deborah Krull.

    In his closing argument, Clark’s attorney, Michael Dugan, accused prosecutors of having “tunnel vision” and building the case against Clark at the insistence of Rogers and her family.

    “This investigation began with a conclusion right from the jump,” Dugan said. “There was never any suspect, there was no investigation of anyone else, other than looking at this man.”

    Dugan urged jurors to acquit Clark of all charges, saying a lack of eyewitness evidence and inconsistent scientific rulings on whether the fire was set intentionally introduced too much reasonable doubt.

    But jurors were not swayed.

    Assistant District Attorney Danielle Gallaher challenged Dugan’s assessment, telling jurors not to let the veteran defense attorney mischaracterize the evidence.

    “This crime fits this defendant,” she said. “Arson is a very intimate crime, and it’s something a man who has been scorned would do.”

    Gallaher said Rogers ended her 10-month relationship with Clark out of fear that he would harm her further. She reported his abuse to her local police department, and even filed a complaint with the United States Postal Service, where the two worked together in Southwest Philadelphia.

    But Clark, Gallaher said, could not stand to lose Rogers.

    “He tried to kill her and everyone she loved, a family who loved each other unconditionally,” Gallaher said. “The defendant wanted to take it all away because he can’t comprehend that. He doesn’t have an ounce of compassion in him.”

    Dugan told jurors that prosecutors had falsely painted Clark as homicidal and vindictive and noted that while the couple had a nasty argument two days before the fire, they had reconciled, posing for pictures in front of a Christmas tree hours later.

    “That’s not someone who’s in fear of her life,” Dugan said of Rogers. “That’s just someone who’s in a bad relationship.”

    Dugan characterized the prosecution’s case as “full of holes.” One of Rogers’ neighbors, touted as an eyewitness, could not pick Clark out of a police lineup, he said. Arson experts said there was no evidence of any accelerant found at the crime scene.

    But Gallaher said there was more than enough evidence to connect Clark to the crime. The pants he was wearing when he was arrested tested positive for a petroleum-based accelerant, and cell-phone tower data showed he was near Rogers’ home at the time the fire was set.

    The most damning evidence, she said, were the text messages Clark sent Rogers in the hours before the fire, including telling her: “hope you don’t miss the show.”

    “He’s telling her he’s going to create a spectacle,” she said. “He wants her to know that whatever happens, he’s responsible.

    “Believe him when he says that.”

    A conviction for first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Clark will be sentenced next month.

  • A West Philly man is on trial this week for setting a fire that killed his ex’s disabled sister

    A West Philly man is on trial this week for setting a fire that killed his ex’s disabled sister

    When Aaron Clark’s soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend ignored his 200 calls in December 2022, he sent her a simple text message: “Pick up before I do something crazy.”

    Clark, unable to handle the impending end to what Delaware County prosecutors described Tuesday as a toxic, abusive relationship, later made good on that threat, they said.

    The West Philadelphia resident set fire to Amira Rogers’ home in Darby Township, killing Olivia Drasher, her wheelchair-bound sister, and forever tearing her family apart, Assistant District Attorney Danielle Gallaher said at the beginning of Clark’s trial for murder and related crimes.

    “The breakup was the match that lit this fire, and the defendant was going to burn her and everything she cared about down to the ground,” Gallaher told jurors in her opening statement.

    Just after midnight on Dec. 4, 2022, Clark, 33, sprayed accelerant on the front porch of Rogers’ home on Sharon Avenue, directly underneath her sister’s bedroom, the prosecutor said. Witnesses told 911 dispatchers that the fire spread quickly, and soon the entire house was engulfed.

    Rogers’ mother, other sister, and Drasher’s full-time nurse were able to escape. But Drasher died in the blaze.

    Gallaher promised the jury that “physical evidence, digital evidence and the defendant’s actions” will prove Clark was the only one who had the motivation and will to target Rogers and her family.

    A man wearing distinctive clothing similar to what Clark was seen wearing that day was recorded on surveillance footage near the scene of the fire, Gallaher said. And cellphone data shows he was in the area of the blaze when it was set.

    But Clark’s attorney, Michael Dugan, challenged Gallaher’s theory of the case, saying investigators had “tunnel vision” and focused in on Clark at the insistence of Rogers and her family.

    Authorities failed, Dugan said, to find any witnesses who said he set the fire, and instead relied on “assumption and supposition.”

    “At the end of the day, this is a tragic case,” the defense lawyer said. “But also at the end of the day, you have to understand that emotion doesn’t prove a case, evidence does.”

    At the start of testimony, prosecutors chronicled the tumultuous 10 months during which Rogers and Clark dated. They met as co-workers at the United States Postal Service’s facility in Southwest Philadelphia.

    But their relationship turned sour toward the end of 2022.

    Hours before setting the deadly blaze, prosecutors said, Clark attacked Rogers when she confronted him over his infidelity and ended their relationship. He choked her so hard, she testified Tuesday, that she was afraid he was going to kill her.

    “I begged him to stop,” Rogers said, her voice filled with emotion. “I felt terrified, because I didn’t know what he was doing.”

    That attack came weeks after another, similar assault, she said, in which Clark struck her so hard that he bent the laptop computer she was carrying at the time.

    Rogers later took steps to avoid Clark, changing her scheduled shift at work and reporting his continued harassment to their supervisors, she said Tuesday.

    For hours on the day of the crime, Clark called her nonstop, his requests to speak with her turning to demands and, eventually, threats, according to text messages displayed in court.

    Clark made an Instagram account through which he shared nude photos of Rogers, and shared the account with her family and friends.

    Rogers continued to ignore Clark. Then he sent her a cryptic message not long before the fire was set: “Hope you don’t miss the show.”

    The trial is expected to last through Friday before Delaware County Court Judge Deborah Krull.

  • Bucks man admits to killing his mother and hiding her corpse under furniture and garbage

    Bucks man admits to killing his mother and hiding her corpse under furniture and garbage

    A Northampton Township man who beat his elderly mother to death and hid her body in a pile of furniture and garbage, pleaded guilty to the slaying Monday.

    William Ingram, 51, entered a plea to third-degree murder and related crimes for killing his 82-year-old mother, Dolores, as well as drug crimes for running a sizable marijuana and psilocybin mushroom-distribution business out of the condo they shared.

    In a deal negotiated with Bucks County prosecutors, Ingram avoided a trial on charges of first-degree murder, and the potential it carries for life in prison.

    Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc Furber said that negotiation included an agreed-upon sentence of 26 to 54 years in state prison for murder, abuse of corpse, and related crimes. But Ingram’s sentencing for the drug crimes will be up to the discretion of Common Pleas Judge Stephen Corr at a hearing in February.

    Ingram’s attorney, Riley Downs, said Ingram suffers from a schizoaffective disorder, which is being treated and managed through medication while he’s incarcerated.

    During his plea before Corr, Ingram admitted to the murder but initially seemed confused about some of the details.

    Investigators said that after beating his mother in the head on June 16, 2024, Ingram left behind a chaotic and gruesome crime scene, with blood spattered throughout the home’s living room.

    Ingram buried her body under a mountain of detritus, including a shattered aquarium that once housed his two pet lizards, which police found dead nearby.

    Police found $53,000 among the items piled on top of the victim, as well as six pounds of marijuana and packaged psylocibin mushrooms. More drugs and paraphernalia, including cases of marijuana vapes, hash, and edibles, were found in Ingram’s bedroom.

    A handwritten note advertised the prices for each item, according to Furber, the prosecutor.

    Ingram stole his mother’s Honda Civic and fled Bucks County, driving four hours south to Washington, D.C.

    Just before 1 a.m. the next day, police said, Ingram, wearing no clothes, approached a police officer sitting in a patrol car and used a skateboard to smash the car’s front passenger window. When the officer confronted him, he grabbed the officer, according to police. The officer pushed Ingram away, and he ran off.

    Other officers caught up to Ingram about a half-mile away and took him into custody. He was charged with assaulting a police officer and destruction of property and was taken into custody.

    While being questioned by police, Ingram admitted to killing his mother hours earlier after he said she hit him in the face, Furber said Monday.

    He told the officers he left her body in their home.

    “There’s tons of stuff thrown all over the place, I don’t know what the [expletive] I threw. … there’s blood, just a big mess,” Ingram said, according to court filings.

  • Killer who gunned down a pregnant Delco woman during Wawa fight sent to state prison

    Killer who gunned down a pregnant Delco woman during Wawa fight sent to state prison

    Evelina Williams told a Delaware County judge she has been agonizing for more than a year over her split-second decision to fatally shoot a pregnant woman and her unborn child.

    For that, the Southwest Philadelphia woman was sentenced Friday to 10 to 20 years in state prison.

    “I am not God. I can’t decide who lives and who dies,” Williams, 31, told Judge Kevin F. Kelly. “This is the biggest mistake of my life, and I hate myself for it.”

    Williams pleaded guilty in August to third-degree murder and third-degree murder of an unborn child for fatally shooting Latoya Davis in the parking lot of a Wawa store in Collingdale last year.

    At the time, Davis, 32, was six months pregnant, something Williams said she did not know when she pulled the trigger of her Ruger .380 handgun on that night in October 2024.

    “Not a day goes by where I don’t cry my eyes out,” Williams said. “I am sorry for the Davis family for the pain I have caused. I took something so precious, and I’m embarrassed, ashamed, remorseful, shattered.”

    Davis, who left behind two young daughters, was shot once in the back during the dispute, which prosecutors said began inside the Wawa and continued in the store’s parking lot, where the two women had parked next to each other.

    Latoya Davis, a mother of two, was killed outside of a Wawa in Glenolden. Davis was six months pregnant at the time.

    As Williams went to drive away, Davis continued to argue with her and, at one point, threw a beverage at her. In response, Williams shot her with the gun she was licensed to carry.

    Williams’ attorney, Anna Hinchman, said a lifetime of trauma, including sexual abuse as a teen and violent domestic assaults by her ex-husband, left Williams with a severe case of PTSD that was triggered when Davis confronted her.

    Assistant District Attorney Dan Kerley called the shooting a “senseless act of violence” and said that, despite Williams’ perception that she was defending herself, her actions forever ruined two families.

    “It’s undisputed that Ms. Williams had a license to carry her gun, but that did not give her a license to kill,” he said. “It does not give you the ability to shoot someone during an argument.”

    Still, Kerley credited Williams for remaining at the scene, performing CPR on the grievously wounded Davis, and cooperating with police.

    Gabou Jean Pierre Toure, Davis’ longtime boyfriend and the father of her unborn son, said no amount of remorse or accountability can heal the pain he feels.

    “I want to forgive you so bad. I’m trying to forgive you,” he said. “But I still feel this is a nightmare that I want to wake up from.”

    Toure said he and Davis were soulmates, and were both eagerly awaiting the birth of their son after struggling with fertility issues. The two shared a birthday and celebrated together every year.

    This year, he said, all he could do on that day was weep for his lost love.

    “You are a mom. You can imagine how it feels to lose your child,” he said to Williams. “I hope you regret what you’ve done.”

  • Suspect in Warminster child sex assaults arrested in El Salvador, police say

    Suspect in Warminster child sex assaults arrested in El Salvador, police say

    A Warminster man who fled to his native El Salvador last year after he was charged with sex crimes against children was extradited to Bucks County on Thursday to face trial for sexually assaulting three girls, including a 5-year-old authorities say he raped multiple times.

    Noel Yanes, 45, is charged with rape, statutory sexual assault of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and related crimes.

    Bucks County District Attorney Jen Schorn said Yanes’ arrest was a testament to the pursuit of justice for those who harm children.

    “To those who commit crimes against the most vulnerable and believe they can evade accountability by fleeing across borders, this should serve as a clear message: You will be found, apprehended, and brought back to face the consequences of your actions,” she said.

    After months of investigation into the case and Yanes’ whereabouts by local and federal authorities, he was arraigned in district court in Warminster early Thursday and remained in custody on 10% of $500,000 bail. There was no indication he had hired an attorney.

    Investigators in Bucks County learned of the assaults in February 2024, when one of the girls told police Yanes had raped her multiple times at a home on Tollhouse Road in Warminster where he was living at the time, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. She said the assaults began when she was 5 years old and continued for six years.

    A second girl told police Yanes groped her in Wildwood, at a park in Doylestown, and at the same Warminster home where the other girl said she was raped. She said the assaults began when she was 4 and continued for two years.

    The third girl said Yanes sexually assaulted her when she was 8 years old as they swam together in a pool at a home in Warminster Township, the affidavit said. Yanes groped her while he was spinning her around, holding her by her ankles, she said, and he groped her twice more later in the day.

    Yanes fled the country shortly after the charges against him were filed in February 2024. He was on the run there for 11 months before U.S. marshals received a tip about his whereabouts, and his capture was a collaboration between local prosecutors and the Department of Justice, officials said Thursday.

  • A North Philly gang hit man, ‘the very worst’ of society, taken into custody for three killings, officials say

    A North Philly gang hit man, ‘the very worst’ of society, taken into custody for three killings, officials say

    A North Philadelphia street-gang hit man wanted in connection with three killings, including the execution-style shooting of a 16-year-old boy, was taken into custody Wednesday morning in Delaware County, officials said.

    Tyvine “Blumberg Eerd” Jones, 25, was apprehended by U.S. marshals in an apartment where he had been hiding at the Stratford Court complex in Lansdowne, authorities said. Jones was considered one of the city’s most wanted fugitives, and in October, marshals issued a $5,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

    Eric Gartner, the United States marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said Jones’ “unrestrained existence serves only to diminish our great city,” and his arrest demonstrates the agency’s commitment to keep Philadelphians safe.

    Investigators say Jones is a suspect in three slayings that took place between 2020 and 2022: the killings of Heyward Garrison, 16, Wesley Rodwell, 20, and Ryan Findley, 23.

    Jones is a self-identified member of the Blumberg gang, which federal prosecutors say operates in the area around the now-shuttered Norman Blumberg Apartments on Oxford Street in North Philadelphia.

    Members of the gang, including its onetime leader, Edward Stinson, have been convicted of drug trafficking in that area, and others have been tied to assaults and shootings.

    Stinson, federal prosecutors wrote in court filings, ran a round-the-clock crack cocaine distribution ring that sucked in teenagers, single mothers, and other vulnerable people.

    Jones was an associate of Anthony “Blumberg Geez” Watson, and the two recorded rap songs together. In one song, “Blow Up,” the two brag about stalking and shooting their criminal rivals.

    Like Jones, Watson, 21, was sought by investigators as a suspect in Garrison’s killing, but he was gunned down in an unrelated shooting after a year on the run.

    Garrison was found shot multiple times in the back of a Honda Pilot parked near 22nd and Diamond Streets in August 2020.

    Two years later, in May 2022, Rodwell was slain on Erie Avenue near 16th Street in a broad-daylight shooting.

    And in September 2022, Findley was killed on Creston Street near Oakland in Oxford Circle.

    Investigators say Jones was involved in all three killings. When announcing the reward for his arrest, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark called Jones “the very worst society has to offer” and said he demonstrated a complete disregard for human life.

  • She was hired to supervise troubled youth. She gave one a gun and had sex with him, Bucks DA says.

    She was hired to supervise troubled youth. She gave one a gun and had sex with him, Bucks DA says.

    A New York woman who worked as a “house mom” supervising troubled teens at a group home in Feasterville gave a 16-year-old boy money, posed in pictures with him holding a gun, and forced him into a sexual relationship, prosecutors in Bucks County said Tuesday.

    Cristal Betancourt, 30, told the teen in text messages in December 2024 that she was pregnant and asked him to buy her an emergency contraceptive, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.

    But the boy, in an electronic diary he kept on his iPhone’s Notes app, said he was afraid of Betancourt, writing that she was “crazy” and once demanded sex from him at gunpoint, the affidavit said.

    Betancourt has been charged with institutional sexual assault, corruption of minors, and related crimes. She had not been arraigned as of Tuesday afternoon. Efforts to reach her were unsuccessful.

    Investigators were first notified of the alleged abuse in January, six months after the teen was court-ordered to move into the home at 700 Ross Dr. in Feasterville.

    The property, operated by Community Service Foundation, provides housing and behavioral therapy for troubled teens, usually after they are taken into custody for criminal offenses. It operates similar to a foster home, with a full-time “house parent” who lives on the premises and supervises the teens.

    That supervisor also makes recommendations to CSF as to whether the teens are worthy of being granted “home passes” to visit family and friends.

    CSF did not return a request for comment on Betancourt or the charges she faces.

    Lower Southampton police were notified by investigators in Lancaster County, where the boy lived before being assigned to the group home, that they had a photo of the teen holding a Walther PPQ handgun and standing next to Betancourt, the affidavit said. Records show that she had purchased a gun similar to the one in the photo, the document said.

    In an interview with investigators, the affidavit said, Betancourt told them she owned two handguns, including the Walther, which she said had been recently stolen from her car. She said she had not reported the gun stolen and asked detectives to do that for her, according to the document.

    Detectives later examined the 16-year-old’s phone and found other photos of him holding both of Betancourt’s guns, the affidavit said. He told police she had taken him to a gun shop to look at firearms and then purchased a second gun, a Palmetto Arms 5.7-caliber pistol. Text messages found on the boy’s phone showed that he had bragged to his friends that he was carrying a handgun of that caliber, the document said.

    The teen’s cell phone showed that he had taken detailed notes of his sexual encounters with Betancourt inside the group home in November 2024, according to the affidavit. He wrote that he no longer wanted to have sex with her but was afraid she would “get him in trouble” or harm him if he refused, the affidavit said.

    Cell phone records revealed that Betancourt had taken the teen on unauthorized trips to Lancaster in violation of his probation, while lying and saying they were at a Costco store in Warminster, the document said, and detectives found she had sent him $600 via CashApp the week before Christmas 2024.

  • Pagans bikers held for trial in Wawa shooting allegedly sparked by a rivalry between two outlaw clubs

    Pagans bikers held for trial in Wawa shooting allegedly sparked by a rivalry between two outlaw clubs

    Members of the Pagans outlaw motorcycle club targeted two members of a rival club at a Wawa store in West Norriton this fall, setting off a chain of events that left six people shot, including two bystanders, prosecutors in Montgomery County said Friday.

    During a marathon preliminary hearing, held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility due to security concerns, seven members of the Pagans were held over for trial by District Judge Marc Alfarano on charges including aggravated assault, conspiracy, riot, and reckless endangerment.

    Those who appeared before Alfarano were: Joel Hernandez-Martinez, 36, George Hripto Jr., 50, and Jason Lawless, 45, all of Bridgeport; Manuel Baez-Santos, 34, of Norristown; Erik Dixon, 33, of King of Prussia; Luke Higgins, 29, of Dauberville; and Justin Noll, 34, of Reading.

    Two other Pagans allegedly involved and facing similar charges in the incident, George Cwienk III, 51, of Bridgeport, and Erik Rosenberger, 46, of East Greenville, had their preliminary hearings continued due to a scheduling issue with their attorneys.

    Assistant District Attorney Bradley Deckel said the group conspired to attack two members of the Unknown Bikers outlaw club after seeing them parked at the Wawa on Oct. 17.

    Given the rules of their subculture, Deckel said, the Pagans felt they had no choice but to confront the rival club.

    A gang expert testified Friday that the Pagans have a strong presence throughout Pennsylvania, and fiercely defend their territory.

    “They knew what they had to do the moment they saw a group invading their territory,” Deckel said. “And they had to teach them a lesson with violence.”

    But defense attorneys for the Pagans took turns sharply rebutting Deckel’s theory during the seven-hour hearing, arguing that their clients were not the ones responsible for the shooting. They asserted that prosecutors had built their case entirely on speculation and innuendo, unfairly painting their clients as dangerous in news coverage.

    Further, they said, investigators could not clearly identify what role each of the nine men played in the supposed conspiracy to attack the other bikers, nor prove whether any of the Pagans were armed at the time.

    Noll’s attorney, Robert J. Kirwan II, argued that the alleged targets in the case — the Unknown Bikers — were the ones who should be held accountable. Ballistics evidence showed 13 of the 14 bullets fired during the chaotic melee came from their guns.

    He said he was “disgusted” that the men were not called to testify during Friday’s hearing.

    “It’s astounding that the Unknown Bikers are not charged,” Kirwan said. “What we do know is that they unloaded all of their ammunition at the people present, including bystanders, and yet they’re walking free.”

    After pulling into the Wawa just after 9 p.m., the Pagans encircled the other two bikers and began assaulting them. In turn, the Unknown Bikers opened fire on the Pagans with two 9mm handguns in what prosecutors described as an act of self-defense.

    Three of the Pagans — Cwienk, Hernandez-Martinez, and Noll — were injured in the gunfire. Nearby, a man filling his tires with air was shot in the face as he dived for cover, and a woman smoking a cigarette outside the store was shot in the right side.

    Deckel, the prosecutor, said that during the attack some members of the group strategically positioned their bikes at the gas station’s entrance, in what he described as an attempt to prevent their targets from escaping.

    The Pagans’ defense attorneys denied that entirely, saying their clients were the true victims in the attack. Paul Lang, representing Dixon, said his client abandoned his motorcycle and fled as soon as the first gunshots rang out, despite the supposedly coordinated assault.

    Still, Deckel said, the motive for the attack was clear: The Pagans wanted the Unknown Bikers’ “cuts,” their denim vests bearing the club logo. In the world of outlaw clubs, a biker’s cut is sacred and, therefore, a trophy sought by his rivals, according to a gang expert who testified Friday.

    After the shooting, five of the Pagans were arrested during a car stop in Bridgeport. One of the motorcycles they were riding bore a bullet hole in its gas tank.

    The other four were taken into custody in the following days, prosecutors said, tracked down through automated license plate readers and cell phone records.