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Former Pittston Area teacher charged for alleged sexual relationship with student

What’s Up, NEPA?/Senior News

WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Wandalee Balcacer didn&#8217;t order an alleged Philadelphia gang member nicknamed &#8220;Hazard&#8221; to the area just to talk. Instead, she summoned Tony Edwards to Wilkes-Barre to exact a brutal punishment, prosecutors said Tuesday in opening arguments for the pair&#8217;s attempted homicide trial.Edwards, prosecutors said, didn&#8217;t earn his nickname based on his negotiation skills.&#8220;You don&#8217;t bring &#8216;Hazard&#8217; to talk,&#8221; Assistant District Attorney Jarrett Ferentino told the jury of seven men and seven women. &#8220;You bring &#8216;Hazard&#8217; to be hazardous.&#8221;Edwards, 29, and Balcacer, 26, of Wilkes-Barre, face two counts each of attempted homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide after they allegedly tried to shoot Sherry &#8220;Chyna&#8221; Rivera and Izhar Ramos-Ramirez in their heads at point-blank range inside a stairwell at the Interfaith Heights apartment complex on April 4, 2015.Both victims suffered traumatic brain injuries and had their faces shattered from the &#8220;execution-style&#8221; gun blasts, Ferentino said, but they survived the attempt on their lives and are expected to take the stand Wednesday to share their stories.Balcacer, Ferentino told the jury, brought Edwards to the area to secure a $4,000 drug debt owed by Rivera, Balcacer&#8217;s ex-girlfriend. Balcacer became desperate when Rivera didn&#8217;t pay up, he said.&#8220;(Edwards) was brought here to mete out punishment because (Rivera) did (Balcacer) dirty,&#8221; Ferentino said.Ferentino told the jury responsibility for the shootings will be fleshed out through accounts of the co-defendants&#8217; own words, including an alleged text message Balcacer sent saying, &#8220;I got that b&#8212;&#8212; shot.&#8221; He added Edwards, while jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility, bragged to an inmate that he planned to hold a gun closer to a victim&#8217;s head next time.&#8220;Those are their words after (the shootings),&#8221; he said. &#8220;But those words after give you everything you need to know about what happened before.&#8221;Allyson L. Kacmarski, Edwards&#8217; attorney, asked jurors to consider two words as the trial progresses.&#8220;Credibility and reliability,&#8221; she said in her openings, noting several witnesses will spin several variations of the story.Balcacer&#8217;s attorney, John McMahon, acknowledged she sold drugs but denied she recruited anyone to the area to go on a &#8220;mission to hunt&#8221; and pointed blame for the shootings at Edwards.&#8220;Mr. Edwards committed these acts on his own,&#8221; said McMahon, of Norristown.Jurors heard a frantic 911 call placed the day of the shootings, detailing two victims bleeding from their heads, followed by testimony from Wilkes-Barre police officer Dan Duffy describing his discovery of the victims, face-down and surrounded by a pool of blood.Niesha Morris, a 36-year-old resident at the Coal Street apartment complex where the shootings occurred, told the jury Balcacer came to her apartment around 4 p.m. the day of the shootings to smoke marijuana and stated Rivera was planning to meet up with her the same afternoon. As soon as Balcacer arrived at Morris&#8217; apartment, she received a phone call from Rivera saying she was outside the complex, Morris said.Balcacer, with a group of men positioned nearby, confronted Rivera and asked her to pay up, according to Morris. She said Rivera smirked and said, &#8220;Baby, I don&#8217;t have it.&#8221;&#8220;Then I was told to leave by one of the guys,&#8221; Morris said. &#8220;I was just intimidated by the whole thing. I left and walked up to my apartment door. As soon as I got into my apartment I heard three gunshots.&#8221;Morris said she ran to the area and saw Rivera&#8217;s brain matter on the ground. &#8220;I was hysterical,&#8221; she said.During cross-examination, McMahon questioned whether Balcacer was acting threatening toward Rivera.&#8220;I know she was upset, but she wasn&#8217;t acting physically aggressive or threatening her and just wanted the drugs or the money,&#8221; McMahon said.McMahon then cited Morris&#8217; testimony at a hearing in October, at which she said she didn&#8217;t believe the confrontation was serious.&#8220;You didn&#8217;t think that was going to be some big deal?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;You didn&#8217;t think to say to (Balcacer), &#8216;I&#8217;m going to be busy you can&#8217;t come over?&#8217;&#8221;Morris said she didn&#8217;t think Balcacer was going to come over with a group of men. She expected Balcacer would be with another female and maybe she and Rivera might run into one another and they could work something out, she said.Balcacer, Morris said, later called her and said &#8220;that wasn&#8217;t supposed to happen,&#8221; regarding the shootings. &#8220;She was just supposed to get beat up,&#8221; Morris testified.Prosecutors are expected to call their next witness Wednesday morning.<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Defense asks jurors to consider credibility</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Joe Dolinskyjdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL.</shirttailMeta></div>

Prosecutors: Wilkes-Barre woman recruited gang member for shootings