web1_la-bio-jon-healey.jpeg

Their view: Trump just owned the looming government shutdown

web1_disney.skater.jpg

‘100 Years of Magic’

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Assistant District Attorney Jarrett Ferentino called Oct. 13, 2013, &#8220;the day the music died.&#8221;</p><p>That&#8217;s when Michael Onley, better known by his stage name DJ Mo, was gunned down outside the now shuttered Outsiders Bar on South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>A bullet struck him directly between the eyes.</p><p>Afterward, his alleged killers headed to a party, according to the prosecution.</p><p>The trial for homicide suspects Roberto Battle and David Nealy got underway after a lengthy jury selection process that took up all of Monday and the bulk of Tuesday.</p><p>The jury consists of seven men and five women. Four alternate jurors were also selected: three men and one woman.</p><p>According to Ferentino, Nealy drove the vehicle that Battle fired from. In a fiery opening argument, he described Nealy and Battle&#8217;s actions on what proved to be the final day of Onley&#8217;s life.</p><p>Throughout his opening, Ferentino referred to the defendants exclusively by their street names: Battle, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was &#8220;Ruthless&#8221;; Nealy, of Kingston, was &#8220;D-Rock.&#8221;</p><p>Ferentino said the day started at the home of Shakim Varrick &#8212; a federal inmate who provided investigators with information that led to the arrest of Battle and Nealy in May 2017. </p><p>Battle was at Varrick&#8217;s home on North Franklin Street when he was picked up by Nealy, Ferentino said. They headed to Outsiders in a silver Mercedes that Nealy had reportedly borrowed from a friend.</p><p>While there, Nealy introduced Battle to people as &#8220;my shooter,&#8221; the prosecutor said. Later, a fight broke out, and the brawl was allegedly started by Battle before he was removed by security.</p><p><strong>&#8216;Caught a bullet&#8217;</strong></p><p>After Nealy left the bar at around 1:30 a.m., Ferentino said the pair rushed back to Varrick&#8217;s home. Battle allegedly rushed up the stairs &#8212; having been told by Varrick, who was not home at the time, that a gun was in his girlfriend&#8217;s underwear drawer.</p><p>The two men then got back in their car and drive back to Outsiders. Ferentino said they took the &#8220;long way&#8221; so the car would be positioned with the passenger side facing the bar.</p><p>Ferentino told the jury they would see surveillance video with plainly visible muzzle flashes.</p><p>&#8220;Off in the distance, Michael Onley, DJ Mo, falls from the chair where he was sitting,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Michael caught a bullet between the eyes.&#8221;</p><p>Ferentino said after the shooting, the suspects headed for a party elsewhere in Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>&#8220;You just shoot up a parking lot, why not go to a party?&#8221; he said. &#8220;And that&#8217;s what they did, ladies and gentlemen. Pretty ruthless, isn&#8217;t it?&#8221;</p><p>Ferentino said news quickly spread at the party of DJ Mo&#8217;s death at Outsiders. He said Battle reportedly laughed and noted: &#8220;We just lit that place up.&#8221;</p><p>Ferentino&#8217;s portrait of the defendants was cold and violent.</p><p>&#8220;DJ Mo is dead because his hands were on the wheel,&#8221; he boomed, pointing at Nealy, then turned to Battle, &#8220;and his fingers were on the trigger.&#8221;</p><p><strong>&#8216;What&#8217;s on cutting room floor&#8217;</strong></p><p>The opening arguments made by Battle and Nealy&#8217;s attorneys, by contrast, were far shorter and less bombastic.</p><p>Thomas Sundmaker, Nealy&#8217;s private attorney, suggested that many of the witnesses who would testify for the commonwealth had reason to lie, and he asked jurors to pay careful attention to the information that&#8217;s left out of testimony.</p><p>He compared the trial to a time where he felt duped by a movie trailer, where the best line in the trailer was ultimately left out of the movie.</p><p>&#8220;Think about what&#8217;s been left on the cutting room floor,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The opening from Allyson Kacmarski, Battle&#8217;s public defender, was similar.</p><p>&#8220;No doubt you will see why people are motivated,&#8221; she said, pointing specifically to Varrick, who she said is testifying in an attempt to get a lesser sentence.</p><p><strong>&#8216;Eerie look in eye&#8217;</strong></p><p>Tuesday saw testimony from three prosecution witnesses: Ealair Edwards and Prince Rodriguez, who were working security at the bar that night, and Damian Pritters, a medic in the military who was a patron.</p><p>Edwards and Rodriguez both described Onley as an amazing, caring individual. They said he wasn&#8217;t working as a DJ at Outsiders that night, but he was there for promotional photos.</p><p>Edwards said he removed Battle from the bar after he started a fight.</p><p>Rodriguez said after Battle was removed, he stood leaning against the Mercedes, staring at the bar.</p><p>&#8220;He had an eerie look in his eye,&#8221; he recalled.</p><p>Later, as they were conducting a security sweep of the parking lot after closing, Edwards and Rodriguez heard shots ring out, coming from the direction of Pennsylvania Avenue and a silver vehicle.</p><p>Pritters, who was leaving the bar at the time, saw Onley fall out of his chair. He rushed over and saw a bullet wound in what he described as his &#8220;front lobe.&#8221; He said Onley had no pulse and was not breathing. Pritters started doing CPR and was able to bring back a pulse, but Onley died at the hospital.</p><p>Testimony will continue Wednesday morning in front of Luzerne County Judge David W. Lupas.</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_web1_web1_Roberto-Battle-2-2-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Battle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_web1_web1_Roberto-Battle-2-2-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Battle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_web1_web1_David-Nealy-2-2-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Nealy </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_web1_web1_David-Nealy-2-2-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Nealy </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_DJ-MO-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Michael &#8220;DJ Mo&#8221; Onley </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_DJ-MO-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Michael &#8220;DJ Mo&#8221; Onley </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Patrick Kernan</p><p>pkernan@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Patrick Kernan at 57-991-6386 or on Twitter @PatKernan</p></shirttailMeta></div>

DJ Mo homicide trial begins; prosecutor says alleged killers went to party after shooting