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WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Accused killer Joshua Carlos Ovalles may have done some talking in prison.&#8220;He told me there was an incident and he had to clap someone,&#8221; former inmate Christien Haulcombe testified.Haulcombe took the witness stand Tuesday in Luzerne County Court, where he told Judge Thomas F. Burke about his conversations with Ovalles, saying he understood &#8220;to clap&#8221; meant &#8220;to shoot.&#8221;Ovalles, 20, faces an open count of criminal homicide in the July 7, 2013, fatal shooting of 24-year-old Vaughn Kemp. His trial entered its second day Tuesday.Haulcombe, appearing nervous, admitted he offered testimony against Ovalles in exchange for the withdrawal of felony drug charges against him. Arrested in May, he is charged with felony possession with intent to deliver and criminal use of a communication facility.Haulcombe said he knew Ovalles before the men were inmates at Luzerne County Correctional Facility, and said they discussed the homicide case on a few occasions in late 2013 and early 2014.Ovalles, who at times Tuesday appeared much more at ease than he did his first day of trial, grew restless during Haulcombe&#8217;s testimony, staring at his former co-inmate, fidgeting in his chair and stroking his face and facial hair.According to Haulcombe&#8217;s testimony, Ovalles told him, &#8220;Things were looking good.&#8221;Ovalles allegedly told Haulcombe he got away after the shooting and &#8220;tossed everything,&#8221; meaning his clothes and gun, and then turned himself in to police after learning of Kemp&#8217;s death &#8220;so he won&#8217;t look guilty.&#8221;Haulcombe testified Ovalles also informed him when Burke threw out the transcript testimony of Erik Rodriguez, who had fled to the Dominican Republic.Rodriguez took the witness stand Monday, saying he saw Ovalles shoot into the air on July 7, 2013, saw Kemp throw a bottle at Ovalles as a party turned into a scattering crowd and then saw Ovalles shoot twice in the direction of a fleeing Kemp.Forensic testimonyTestimony from forensic pathologist Dr. Gary Ross corroborated at least part of Rodriguez&#8217;s statements, which came under fire from defense attorneys for their drastic discrepancies relative to his earlier testimony.According to Ross, postmortem examination of Kemp&#8217;s body revealed upward bullet trajectories consistent with the reported locations of both Ovalles and Kemp at the time of the shooting.Ross said he recovered two bullets from Kemp&#8217;s body, one of which entered the middle of his back and another which entered his lower back.The rounds pierced a kidney, a lung, the abdomen, a critical artery and a chamber of the heart before each came to a rest just beneath in separate locations beneath the skin of Kemp&#8217;s chest area, Ross said.Under cross examination, he said a bullet stopping beneath the skin was &#8220;very typical.&#8221;He described the wounds as fatal, but said it&#8217;s possible given a different trajectory and medical care that Kemp could have survived.&#8220;It all depends on the relationship between the shooter and the deceased, but I have no way of knowing that,&#8221; Ross said.Two recordingsThe judge later heard brief testimony from LCCF Capt. Mark Rockovich, in which he spoke to the authenticity of a prison recording.A male voice is heard on the garbled recording, telling a female prosecutors &#8220;can&#8217;t get me&#8221; on first degree murder unless they &#8220;prove I planned it.&#8221;Retired Wilkes-Barre police Lt. Joseph Bitzer testified that the male voice belonged to Ovalles, with whom he had become acquainted while investigating the 2013 shooting. During the investigation, Bitzer said police were unable to recover bullets, a weapon or shell casings.Prosecutors rested at the conclusion of Bitzer&#8217;s testimony.The defense took over late in the afternoon, opening with a recording of a 911 call made by Kemp&#8217;s brother, Denzel Kemp-McCarthy, the night Kemp was killed.In the recording, Kemp-McCarthy is heard saying between pauses that his brother was shot, he doesn&#8217;t know who shot him and requesting an ambulance.Detective grilledAttorney Peter Moses then called Wilkes-Barre police Det. Charles Jensen to the stand, calling him first as a &#8220;hostile witness,&#8221; and then as a witness who he could ask leading questions after an objection from Assistant District Attorney Mamie Phillips.Moses proceeded to attack Jensen&#8217;s apparent belief in Rodriguez&#8217;s early statements to police, despite inconsistencies between his description of Ovalles&#8217;s attire and another witness&#8217;s description.&#8220;And you believed everything,&#8221; Moses said. &#8220;You believed it so much you charged somebody with an open count of criminal homicide.&#8221;&#8220;I&#8217;m not saying I believed him or not. That&#8217;s what he said and I wrote it down,&#8221; Jensen said. &#8220;I had no reason to disbelieve him.&#8221;The attorney dug further, citing even broader inconsistencies between Rodriguez&#8217;s early statements and the testimony he gave Monday, which included not only a different set of locations from which Rodriguez alleges he witnessed the shooting, but also a different description of Ovalles&#8217;s appearance.Jensen agreed parts of Rodriguez&#8217;s testimony had changed, and also said it is not uncommon for witnesses to offer multiple descriptions of a suspect&#8217;s clothing.&#8220;I&#8217;m glad you knew which parts were true,&#8221; Moses said.Ovalles&#8217;s defense is slated to continue Wednesday morning.<style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL081115ovalles1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Ovalles </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL081115ovalles1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Ovalles </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By James O&#8217;Malleyjomalley@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach James O&#8217;Malley at 570-991-6390 or on Twitter @TL_omalley.</shirttailMeta></div>

Former inmate says homicide suspect Ovalles told him ‘He had to clap someone’