Man accused of killing undertaker faces trial
PITTSBURGH – A man accused of beating an elderly funeral home operator to death and then setting his body on fire was ordered to stand trial on a criminal homicide charge.
A detective testified Friday Jawwaad Ali acknowledged killing 83-year-old John Connors June 3.
Firefighters were sent to a home in the city’s Allentown neighborhood that day after “a report that a man was on fire,” police said in a criminal complaint.
An autopsy determined Connors died from being beaten about the head and neck before he was set ablaze, and police contend Ali acknowledged killing him in one of several accounts he gave them.
Ali’s public defender didn’t return a call for comment following Friday’s hearing.
Police and prosecutors have said little about a possible motive for the killing, acknowledging only that Ali had been staying at the home for about a week before Connors was killed.