TimesLeader.com

More charges made surrounding W-B homicide

Cops: Homicide suspect and another man threatened a witness to shooting. At-large woman also faces charges.

By Edward Lewis elewis@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

WILKES-BARRE – Tabitha Bidgood did what she was told, investigators said

She testified at a court hearing that Josue Faureles, 25, had nothing to do with a deadly shooting at Moyallen and Grove streets on Oct. 31. She claimed Faureles stayed inside a vehicle, driven by Jose Cruz, when Christly Aristide, 19, was gunned down.

Investigators said Bidgood’s testimony was all a lie.

Bidgood, 19, is facing charges of perjury and threatening Cruz, a witness to the deadly shooting. She remained at-large Wednesday night.

Faureles and Jeremy Battle, 19, were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly threatening Cruz, who didn’t appear at Faureles’ preliminary hearing because he was concerned for his family, investigators said.

Faureles was charged with four counts of solicitation to intimidate a witness, two counts of criminal conspiracy and a single count of criminal use of communication facility. Battle was charged with intimidation of a witness, persons not to possess firearms, hindering prosecution, firearms not to be carried without a license, sale or transfer of firearms and criminal conspiracy.

Investigators alleged Battle hid the firearm allegedly used in the deadly shooting. It was recovered by state police during an unrelated investigation.

Faureles and Battle were arraigned by District Judge William Amesbury in Wilkes-Barre and remanded to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $100,000 bail each.

Faureles has been jailed without bail since his arrest for the alleged criminal homicide of Aristide. Battle has been jailed since April 4, when Hanover Township police accused him of a robbery that involved a shooting at Hanover Village Apartments on Jan. 18, according to arrest and court records.

According to the criminal complaint filed by city detectives Robert Simonetti and Ron Foy, and Luzerne County Det. Lt. Chris Lynch:

Bidgood testified during the Dec. 15 preliminary hearing for Faureles that Faureles never got out of a Ford Explorer when Aristide was gunned down. Cruz, the driver, sped away and stopped on High Street, where Bidgood got out and walked way.

Investigators alleged Faureles gave Bidgood the firearm before she got out of the vehicle.

Police stopped the Ford and arrested Faureles for the deadly shooting.

Cruz told investigators he didn’t show up at the preliminary hearing because he received numerous phone calls from Bidgood telling him, “If he kept quiet, this would all blow over,” the criminal complaint says.

Cruz felt threatened and was concerned for his family. He further claimed he was approached several times by Faureles’ friends, including Battle, telling him not to testify at the preliminary hearing.

“Cruz believed that his only option was to leave his family and live on the run to stay away from associates of Faureles and the police,” the criminal complaint says.

Faureles promised Cruz heroin if he kept to the story, investigators said.

An envelope was mysteriously dropped off at the district attorney’s office on Nov. 21 containing handwritten letters from Faureles instructing Bidgood to “testify to the story that he wrote in a (previous) letter.” The handwritten letters obtained by prosecutors further instructs Bidgood to contact Cruz and have him stick to the same story.

Preliminary hearings are tentatively scheduled on May 14 in Central Court.