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Little, Levert led police on car chase after allegedly stealing vehicle in New York
By Kay Stephens
kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Criminal charges against a New York teenager who led police on a recent high speed chase in Blair County were forwarded to county court on Wednesday by Magisterial District Judge Fred N. Miller.
While defense attorney Kristen Anastasi argued for the dismissal of Zavion Tavaris Little's most serious charge of criminal conspiracy to commit robbery during his preliminary hearing, Miller concluded that the evidence was sufficient to keep the felony charge intact.
District Attorney Pete Weeks asked Miller to consider that after Little, 16, and Adam Herrera Levert, 17, both of Rochester, N.Y., were involved in a conspiracy to commit robbery that began in New York and was interrupted when their vehicle crashed in Antis Township on May 28.
A search of their vehicle yielded two face masks and a knife which Weeks said would have allowed their conspiracy to continue. Evidence offered Wednesday in court indicated that the teenagers wore masks in Rochester, N.Y., where a man was stabbed several times before his vehicle was taken.
While the victim told police he couldn't identify his assailants, Rochester police investigator Blake Petty said Little and Levert were identified later, based on their face masks and clothing, as observed on convenience store video.
Petty said the pair abandoned the man's out-of-gas vehicle near an Ellicottville, N.Y., convenience store, leaving behind a silver folding knife with blood on its blade. They then stole another nearby vehicle and drove it into Blair County where they led police on a high-speed chase before crashing near the Tipton on-ramp to I-99.
Anastasi, who told Miller that the teenagers were heading to North or South Carolina to meet a relative, said there's no evidence to indicate that they were going to commit a robbery in Pennsylvania.
"The commonwealth is asking you to predict the future," Anastasi told Miller in asking the judge to dismiss the conspiracy to commit robbery charge.
Miller said that because the search of the crashed vehicle turned up the masks the youths had been wearing, along with a second knife, he would accept the district attorney's argument.
Miller also forwarded Little's other charges -- including reckless endangerment, fleeing, possessing an instrument of crime, escape and multiple traffic violations -- to county court.
Co-defendant Adam Herrera Levert, who wasn't transported last week to the courthouse when the preliminary hearing was originally scheduled, was in court Wednesday. But Levert opted to waive his charges to county court without a preliminary hearing.
Both teenagers remain incarcerated with bail set for each at $250,000 cash.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.