5 suspects in August homicide on Pittsburgh’s North Side appear in court

PITTSBURGH — Five suspects in an Aug. 7 homicide appeared in court Friday for a preliminary hearing.

A lot of video evidence was shown and a lot of questions remain.

Family and friends sat in court for about 3 hours listening to the evidence collected in this case.

Twenty-one-year-olds, Tylajae Allen and Andre Allen, 26-year-old Andrew Johnson, 20-year-old Rayvon Poellnitz, and 16-year-old Hezekiah Nixon all face charges related to the murder of 40-year-old Stephone Drayton.

Two other people were shot.

A prosecutor with the District Attorney’s office played video from multiple cameras.

One particular angle shows several people firing shots on Brighton Place on the North Side on Aug. 7th.

Another one shows other people shooting from a different car.

In court — testimony from Pittsburgh Police Detectives revealed 58 spent shell casings were collected — which came from at least 8 different firearms.

Casey White is Nixon’s defense attorney.

His client is also accused of being involved in the shooting outside of the funeral in Brighton Heights that injured six people back in October.

A detective says the gun Nixon is accused of throwing over the McKees Rocks Bridge in October was used in both the funeral shooting and the Aug. 7 homicide.

“They’re grasping for straws,” White said. “They have to establish that that firearm found at that location in October was somehow fired by my client back in August and they couldn’t establish the registered owner. Whether the gun was stolen. So again they have a long way to go to piece the puzzle together of what actually took place and who killed that young man on August 7.”

This preliminary hearing lasted so long the judge decided to take a break and pick this preliminary hearing back up in January.

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