Feb 9, 2017 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – Greene County Judge Lou Dayich is expected to make a decision Monday whether three men are guilty of robbing a Monongahela Township couple at gunpoint and stealing nearly $120,000 in cash in September 2015.

The nonjury trial for Jonathan Price, 24, of Allison; Brennan Aldrich, 24, of Charleroi, and Oshea Thomas, 23, of Republic, lasted more than eight hours Wednesday as the alleged victims, John Maraney and Ashley Hall, testified about what occurred that night.

“I thought they were going to kill me,” Hall said during her emotional testimony.

According to the testimony, the couple was at a bar in Republic, Fayette County, Sept. 6, when they met Thomas. Hall said she used to babysit Thomas when he was young, and he asked her if he could come back to their Alicia home to “hang out,” to which they agreed. He followed them in a separate car and when he pulled up to their house, Aldrich and Price also got out.

Maraney said he didn’t know the three men before that night. Hall said she only knew Thomas, but they still “had a good time just talking, drinking and listening to music,” she said.

About 90 minutes later, Aldrich left to use the bathroom, Hall and Maraney testified, and he came back with two guns in his hands. One of them was Maraney’s and had been sitting on the kitchen counter. Then the other two men stood up and pulled out guns, the couple said.

“It just surprised me,” Hall said. “They just kept saying, ‘Where’s you money at? We know you have money. Take us to your money.'”

After walking the couple through their home with guns pointed at their backs and heads, the three men ended up in their bedroom demanding Maraney open a safe, where he had the cash in bank bags. They also “hog-tied” Maraney with belts and cords and tied Hall’s hands behind her back with a phone charger cord, they said.

Maraney and Hall said the men didn’t open the bags right away and continued to demand money. Maraney said he told them the money was at his auto repair shop.

“I was just trying to get them out of the house and away from Ashley,” he said.

Hall said before Aldrich took her in the bathroom, he told Maraney, “Don’t worry, I’m not a weirdo or anything.” He then calmly asked Hall where they kept the money, but Price came in and began attempting to suffocate her by putting a bag over her head. He held a gun to her head while demanding the money.

“I panicked and told them the money is in the bank bags on the bed,” Hall said.

The men stuffed the money in their pockets and took the bags before they left the house.

Hall said they had to “regroup for a second” and couldn’t immediately find their phones to call police because the men hid them under the bed. The defendants snickered in court at that part of Hall’s testimony.

“I don’t know why that’s funny,” she said, crying.

The defense attorneys claimed the couple’s testimony wasn’t credible and was not consistent with what they told state police that night.

When asked several times how many safes were in the house, Hall said only one, until the defense attorney showed her a picture of a second safe.

“Oh, I forgot about that one,” she said.

Maraney initially told state police he had been concerned the men were following him from the bar, but during the trial, his testimony matched Hall’s in that the three men had been welcomed into their home.

The defense also questioned whether the $120,000 even existed. The three attorneys referred to it as “ghost money” and said Maraney didn’t have any bank records, pictures or other proof, besides his testimony, that he had the money and it was stolen.

“Their stories were just as inconsistent and nonsensical as they have been from the beginning,” said defense attorney Josh Camson, who represented Aldrich. “I don’t think the commonwealth proved without a shadow of a doubt that if this money existed, that it was there that night or that it was taken.”

Investigators testified Wednesday DNA of the three defendants was found at the house.

The attorneys and defendants are expected to return to courthouse Monday afternoon for Dayich’s verdict.