Jun 20, 2016 3 min read

PITTSBURGH – Two men labeled as suspects in a cookout ambush that killed five adults and an unborn child near Pittsburgh have been wrongly jailed on stale, unrelated charges to squeeze them for information about the shootings, their attorneys said Monday.

Attorneys Randall McKinney and Casey White represent the Pittsburgh men in question, Cheron Shelton, 29, and Robert Thomas, 27.

Allegheny County detectives labeled the two men suspects in the March 9 ambush in Wilkinsburg as prosecutors asked judges to keep both jailed on unrelated drug-related charges. Nobody has been charged in the ambush.

The two are jailed on charges stemming from heroin and stolen weapons allegedly found at another Wilkinsburg home in February 2013. Those charges were dropped in March 2013 by prosecutors, then refiled before a local district judge dismissed them for lack of evidence in July 2013. The charges were filed again April 6 as police sought to question Thomas, Shelton and two others.

“The timing is certainly concerning,” McKinney said after Monday’s court appearance. “The charges were not refiled until they became quote-unquote suspects.”

There’s been no evidence presented that Shelton had anything to do with the shootings, McKinney said. Calling Shelton and Thomas “suspects” is “an odd way to define them since there’s no support for that contention,” McKinney added.

White and McKinney said their clients have both been asked whether others were responsible for the Wilkinsburg ambush, but McKinney spoke for both in saying, “It’s difficult to cooperate when you don’t know anything.”

Chanetta Powell, a 25-year-old who was 8 months pregnant, and four others – Jerry Shelton, 35; Tina Shelton, 37; Brittany Powell, 27; and Shada Mahone, 26 – were slain during the backyard cookout. Powell’s unborn child also died. Cheron Shelton is not related to any of the victims.

One gunman walked up an alley and fired shots from a pistol toward about 15 cookout guests. When the guests ran toward the house’s back door for cover, they were mowed down by another gunman with a rifle.

White and McKinney were in court Monday on separate motions related to the 2013 drug charges.

White asked Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning to reduce Thomas’ $80,000 bond because Thomas has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest.

Warden Orlando Harper wouldn’t specifically address Thomas, but said, generally, inmates are placed in solitary when they’re a threat to harm or be harmed by others, or for the “orderly operation” of the facility.

McKinney also hopes to free Shelton, who’s being held in lieu of $400,000 bond. But McKinney was in court because prosecutors are trying to get him removed as Shelton’s attorney. Deputy District Attorney Kevin Chernosky contends McKinney has a conflict of interest through some other clients he represents.

White, Shelton and attorneys for the others charged in the 2013 raid contend no new investigation has been done on that case, making the newly filed charges nothing more than an illegally filed extension of 2013 allegations that should be dismissed.

Manning refused to rule because Shelton and Thomas will be formally arraigned next week, at which time a trial judge will be assigned. Manning told the attorneys to take up their motions with that judge.