Kawan Ikee Scarborough shown when he was charged with criminal homicide on June 5, 2024
Ed Lewis | Times Leader file photo
WILKES-BARRE — A Luzerne Borough man facing an open count of criminal homicide in the fatal beating death of a woman in Nanticoke in 2023 rebuffed a plea offer presented by prosecutors.
Kawan Ikee Scarborough, 40, formerly of Main Street, turned down the plea offer that called for him to plead guilty to third-degree murder and an agreed upon sentence.
With Scarborough rejecting the offer, he faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.
Pennsylvania State Police at Wilkes-Barre, along with detectives with the Luzerne County district attorney’s office and Nanticoke police, in court records allege Scarborough fatally beat Lastarr Williams, 27, inside her residence on West Church Street on May 26, 2023.
The body was found on a bedroom floor when Williams’ daughter told a neighbor her mother would not wake up on March 27, 2023, court records say.
When Scarborough fled the apartment out a rear door, court records allege, a surveillance camera recorded him jumping over a fence. Sneakers and clothing with blood spatter allegedly found at an apartment in Scranton where Scarborough was hiding matched Williams’ DNA.
During a status conference before Luzerne County Judge Joseph F. Sklarosky, Scarborough rejected a plea offer presented by assistant district attorneys Brian A. Coleman and Carly A. Levandoski.
Scarborough’s attorneys, James L. Scanlon and Sidney D. May, carefully reviewed the plea offer with their client only for Scarborough to rebuff the offer.
Scarborough complained he has not seen all the evidence, notably video surveillance and data extracted from his cellular phone.
Sklarosky suggested Scarborough meet with Scanlon and May in one of the smaller courtrooms, which will be closed, to view the surveillance footage Scarborough is unable to see himself, as he remains jailed without bail at the county correctional facility.
Coleman said the deadline to accept the plea offer was Monday as time and effort will need to be taken to schedule travel arrangements for witnesses. Williams’ family, including the child who found her body, reside in another state.
Scarborough’s trial is scheduled for January 2026.
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