Sep 21, 2016 4 min read

What began as a party at a Monongahela Township home last September turned into an armed robbery, John Maraney testified Wednesday.

“We were actually having a pretty good time with them,” Maraney said during the preliminary hearing for two of the three men accused of robbing him of nearly $120,000 in cash while drinking at his home. “All of a sudden they stood up with guns. They said they wanted to know where my money was.”

Johnathan Price, 23, of Allison, and Brennan Aldrich, 24, of Charleroi, were charged last month in the Sept. 6, 2015, robbery in which state police investigators said they used DNA from cigarette butts and beer cans to connect them to the armed heist. A third man accused in the robbery, Oshea Thomas, 23, of Republic, was arrested not long after the incident and is scheduled to go to trial in November.

Maraney and his girlfriend, Ashley Hall, was drinking earlier in the night at a bar in Republic, Fayette County, when Hall saw Thomas standing outside. She baby-sat him years ago, so they started talking and she invited him back to Maraney’s home on Alicia Main Street.

Thomas followed in a separate car, Maraney testified, but when they parked outside his home, the two other men, Price and Aldrich, unexpectedly walked through his front door. Maraney said he didn’t mind at first as they talked and had drinks without any problems for about 90 minutes.

“They seemed pretty cool,” he said.

Maraney, who said he had several guns hidden around his house, said a revolver fell out from a dining room chair, so he placed it on a butcher’s block in the kitchen so the men didn’t feel threatened. A few minutes later, Aldrich left for the bathroom, Maraney said, but he returned with the revolver and the other two men stood up and pointed their own guns at the couple.

The men “hog tied” Maraney using a belt and electrical cord, and tied Hall’s hands behind her back with a cord, he said, and then interrogated them for about 45 minutes, asking where he kept his cash. Maraney said he led them to a “dummy safe” in a bedroom that was usually empty, but at the time held two bank bags filled with $119,000 in cash. However, the men apparently didn’t open the bags and continued to press Maraney on where his money was.

Getting nowhere, they then took Hall into a bathroom and started questioning her, he said. Maraney said Aldrich was kind and gentle as he asked her about the money.

“He was actually a really nice guy to her,” Maraney said

Then Price took over as the “tough guy,” Maraney said.

“I’m from Philly. You don’t know me. I’ll kill you in a second. Tell me where the money is,” Maraney recalled Price saying as he began suffocating Hall with a plastic bag while holding a gun to her head in the shower.

She eventually told them the money was in the bags and they left with them, along with $900 in cash that was in Maraney’s pockets and two guns, he said. A rifle was later recovered near his home, although the revolver and cash have never been found.

State police Cpl. Daniel Barnhart testified that investigators found DNA evidence on cigarette butts and beer cans that matched Aldrich and Price at the scene. They also spoke to Thomas upon arresting him, and he allegedly linked Aldrich and Price to the robbery.

Aldrich’s lawyer, Joshua Camson, said Maraney wasn’t credible and that the “shenanigans” he testified to should prompt District Judge Lee Watson to dismiss the charges. District Attorney Marjorie Fox disagreed and asked Watson to raise the $50,000 cash bond on both defendants.

“I’m not aware of any shenanigans,” Fox said. “I heard a victim who related a serious offense.”

Watson declined to raise the bond, but ordered both men to stand trial on charges of robbery, theft, terroristic threats, simple assault and harassment. Their formal arraignment is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 31 at 9 a.m. in the Greene County Courthouse.