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Homicide case for trio moving closer to trial

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Three people facing criminal charges in the 2013 fatal shooting of a 37-year-old Altoona man will move a step closer to trial during the next month.

Blair County Judge Elizabeth Doyle has directed prosecutors, by Friday, to present defense attorneys with a computerized version of the evidence against Kashif Omar Ellis, Taylor A. Griffith and Qasim L. Sharif Green. All three were charged in July with criminal conspiracy, criminal homicide, robbery, aggravated assault and related offenses linked to the death of Steven L. Hackney, who was shot and killed in his residence on the 100 block of Walnut Avenue.

Before rendering her order Friday, Doyle met in chambers with Pete Weeks and Amanda Jacobson, assistant district attorneys, and defense attorneys Robert Donaldson representing Ellis, Douglas Keating representing Green and Mark Zearfaus representing Griffith.

In court, the judge said prosecutors advised her that they are prepared to meet the deadline.

Weeks later said that he expects this case will go to trial in 2018.

Doyle’s order also directs defense attorneys, within 30 days of the Nov. 24 deadline, to present pretrial motions and advise her of any issues to resolve.

One issue that could surface and require a court hearing relates to a portion of her order forbidding attorneys from providing their clients with copies of evidentiary documents.

Weeks, who asked Doyle for that directive, said he has no problem with defense attorneys showing their clients the documents the commonwealth will be providing. But giving a copy to defendants, Weeks said, raises a safety concern over possible retaliation.

Donaldson said he expects that requirement will lead to a hearing where prosecutors will have to justify why specific documents cannot be shared with defendants. The evidence includes cellular telephone records, which Donaldson suspects his client, now incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Huntingdon, will want to take time to review.

Green is incarcerated at SCI Smithfield in Huntingdon, and online court records show Griffith is being held in the Cambria County Prison.

Doyle also agreed to a request from the defense attorneys for a typed transcript of a 3.5-hour preliminary hearing held in September before Magisterial District Judge Jeffrey Auker, who found enough evidence to send Ellis’ case to trial. No preliminary hearings were held for Green and Griffith because they waived their charges to Blair County Court.

Altoona police, who charged the trio four years to the day after Hackney was killed, maintained that Hackney’s killing was motivated by money. Police believe the trio conspired to rob Hackney, who was found with $766 strewn on the floor at the bottom of a staircase.

Police allege that it was Ellis who shot Hackney after Griffith got Hackney to open his door. Police found a cellular telephone belonging to Green in Hackney’s backyard.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.

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