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WILKES-BARRE — Forensic pathologist Dr. Gary Ross painted a grim picture of the gunshot wound that killed Michael “DJ Mo” Onley.
“Death was inevitable,” he said. “There was no hope; no matter what anyone did, he was going to die of that gunshot wound.”
Onley died in the early morning hours of Oct. 13, 2013, after being shot in the head during a drive-by shooting outside the now-shuttered Outsiders Bar on South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre.
Roberto Battle and David Nealy are both facing open counts of criminal homicide and conspiracy to commit criminal homicide in connection with Onley’s death. Prosecutors say Nealy piloted the Mercedes from which Battle fired the fatal shot.
Retired state Trooper Joseph Plant, who assisted in the investigation at the scene, testified to having found around 10 bullets and shell casings at the site.
Plant said he found bullets in the street on Pennsylvania Avenue and around the outside of the bar, adding that one was even found on a lower roof of the building, which likely ricocheted off the bar’s sign.
Bullets were located at regular intervals along Pennsylvania Avenue, suggesting the shooter was firing repeatedly as the car drove past, he testified.
But it only took one bullet to take the life of Onley, a prominent local entertainer; autopsy photos shown during the third day of testimony showed that bullet struck him directly in the center of his forehead.
Ross testified that the shot that killed Onley was a “distant” shot fired from no closer than 3 feet away.
The bullet, Ross said, was found in Onley’s brain during the autopsy, not having exited through the back of his skull. Ross said he had other wounds on his face from having fallen forward after being shot; Onley would’ve lost consciousness instantly, dying later at the hospital.
Allison Laneve, a forensic scientist with the RJ Lee Group, a materials analysis company based out of the Pittsburgh area, testified that there were trace amounts of gunshot residue in the Mercedes.
To test for this, she said she looks for the elements lead, antimony and barium. There were a handful of particles in the car that had some combination of two of those elements, and one that had all three, which she says suggests the presence of gunshot residue.
Inconsistent story
Luzerne County Detective Lieutenant Daniel Beky testified that Nealy was identified as a suspect through interviews, and that he had interviewed Nealy about a month after the shooting.
During that interview, Nealy gave a story that Beky found inconsistent with the evidence.
Beky said Nealy told him he had borrowed a gray Ford Taurus from a man named Chris, but couldn’t identify him further.
Nealy said he drove the Taurus to Outsiders around midnight, stayed there briefly, and was home around 2 a.m., about 10 minutes before the shooting actually occurred. Beky pointed out numerous inconsistencies with this version, especially the testimony of Michael Goodrich, who said he lent Nealy his silver Mercedes.
But it could be the cell phone records for Nealy and Battle that undo that story.
Detective Shane Yelland of the Wilkes-Barre Police Departments testified regarding to cell phone records of the phones belonging to the defendants.
Before his testimony, a stipulation was read, showing that prosecutors, along with defense attorneys Thomas Sundmaker and Allyson Kacmarski — representing Nealy and Battle respectively — had agreed the the phone numbers associated with their accounts belonged to their phones, and that they were in possession of their phones that night.
Yelland displayed a series of maps based on “pings” the cell phones belonging to Nealy and Battle had made on local cell towers.
According to Yelland, the phones pinged to the towers repeatedly throughout the night, tying the defendants to locations at times that seem to fall in line with the prosecution’s version of events: that the pair had been at the bar until Battle was kicked out, that they went to the home of Shakim Varrick and Jessica Fox to retrieve a gun, that they had driven past Outsiders, gone to a party and then back to Varrick and Fox’s home.
At this point, Sundmaker objected, saying it was impossible to know if Nealy had his phone.
Assistant District Attorney Jarrett Ferentino said that Sundmaker had already agreed in the stipulation that Nealy did have his phone.
On cross examination, Sundmaker pointed out that cell phone network Sprint had supplied a warning on the map that locations were not guaranteed to be correct. Sundmaker began asking Yelland if he were aware that cell phones don’t always ping to the nearest tower, but rather the one with the strongest signal.
Ferentino objected, asking if Sundmaker were testifying as a cell phone expert.
Defense cross
In Kacmarski’s cross-examination, she focused on the cell phone records in a different way: asking why such records don’t exist for Varrick.
Varrick had testified he was in New York City the day of the shooting, and had his cell phone off on the way home.
Kacmarski asked Yelland why investigators did not confirm where Varrick was. Yelland said they had, by speaking with Fox.
But Kacmarski said that, if Varrick’s cell phone were off, the GPS mapping would be impossible. Yelland agreed, but also said investigators did not have Varrick’s phone number to track.
Kacmarski also highlighted a seeming discrepancy between the timestamps of the phone records and surveillance video, with the surveillance video suggesting the shooting happened a moment or two earlier than the phone records.
Yelland replied that it was probably just a matter of one clock running fast.
“My watch says 6:13 right now but the courtroom clock says 6:15,” he said.
Kacmarski, though, said there was simply no proof that either timestamp was incorrect.
Testimony will continue Friday morning.
