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Their view: If Trump is looking for a national emergency, he should try these ones instead

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Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority announces legal review of new stormwater fee

WILKES-BARRE &#8212; As Brandon Smith lay dying in January 2017, he declared: &#8220;They shot me.&#8221;After more than six hours of deliberation Friday, a jury decided by &#8220;they&#8221; he meant Antoine McNeal.McNeal has been on trial all week for Smith&#8217;s homicide. Prosecutors said he shot and killed Smith after going to Smith&#8217;s home to buy $500 of marijuana from him in the early morning hours of Jan. 18, 2017.McNeal was found guilty of third-degree murder, criminal use of a communication facility, tampering with evidence and robbery.McNeal hung his head while the verdict was read, hands folded.&#8216;Very close encounter&#8217;Proceedings started Friday morning with hours of argument outside the presence of the jury about the exact phrasing of juror instructions to be read by Luzerne County Judge Tina Polachek Gartley.Once the instructions were settled, proceedings began with Assistant District Attorney Tom Hogans resting the prosecution&#8217;s case, and defense attorney Demetrius Fannick resting his case only about five minutes later without calling a single witness.In his closing arguments, Fannick suggested this was because the prosecution&#8217;s case should bring about so much reasonable doubt on its own.Fannick again focused on Smith&#8217;s dying declaration that &#8220;They shot me,&#8221; despite the fact that Smith knew McNeal personally. The defense attorney argued since the victim did not specifically name McNeal, it should suggest that Smith didn&#8217;t know the person who shot him.&#8220;Have they presented anything to suggest that Mr. Smith that day, when he did not identify someone that he knew, that he was wrong?&#8221; Fannick asked.He pointed to testimony from forensic pathologist Dr. Gary Ross, who said that Smith&#8217;s wounds would have been sustained from a very close distance, around a foot or less.&#8220;This was a very close encounter, and if it was a close encounter with someone he knew, he would&#8217;ve told his parents who it was,&#8221; Fannick said.&#8216;Reasonable doubt?&#8217;Fannick pointed to what he perceived as other holes in the prosecutors&#8217; case, including the fact that the gun used to kill Smith was never found.A box for a revolver was found in the apartment of McNeal&#8217;s girlfriend, Wakeelah Moore. The revolver itself was never found, though, with Moore saying it had gone missing months before the shooting.&#8220;Have they proven to you it was Wakeelah&#8217;s gun that shot Mr. Smith?&#8221; Fannick asked. &#8220;Have they proven that beyond a reasonable doubt?&#8221;Fannick also said a prosecution theory simply didn&#8217;t make sense. Prosecutors suggested McNeal stole a handful of Percocet pills from Smith during the crime, but Fannick said that didn&#8217;t add up.He said the street value of the pills would&#8217;ve been no more than $75, but $500 worth of weed was left in the van Smith was shot in.&#8220;Come on,&#8221; Fannick said.He told jurors there were simply too many things that had to be assumed for a guilty verdict.&#8220;You&#8217;re not here to guess. And I&#8217;m not here to suggest to you alternative ways this could happen here,&#8221; he said.&#8216;Worried about seeing sun rise&#8217;Hogans, though, said prosecutors proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.He chalked up Brandon&#8217;s use of the word &#8220;they&#8221; as just the phrasing of a frightened man who was dying.&#8220;Brandon&#8217;s not worried about who shot him; he&#8217;s worried about seeing the sun rise that day,&#8221; he said.Hogans also pointed out that McNeal himself didn&#8217;t identify another &#8220;they.&#8221;Moore, who drove McNeal to the drug deal, said on the stand earlier this week that McNeal came running back to her car, saying: &#8220;They&#8217;re shooting. We need to get out of here.&#8221;While Fannick said there was no forensic evidence linking McNeal to the crime, Hogans pointed out one major piece of physical evidence: McNeal&#8217;s phone in Smith&#8217;s van, with a stain of Smith&#8217;s blood on it.Hogans said McNeal&#8217;s action of changing the number on the cell phone after he lost it at the scene was a desperate attempt to avoid capture.&#8220;It didn&#8217;t work, though,&#8221; he said.Hogans said evidence suggests McNeal is conscious of his guilt, pointing to recordings of prison phone calls where McNeal encouraged Moore to plead the Fifth Amendment and to &#8220;do as I say.&#8221;&#8220;That&#8217;s consciousness of guilt, ladies and gentlemen,&#8221; he said.&#8216;Justice&#8217;Assistant District William Finnegan seemed a bit puzzled by the jury&#8217;s verdict of third-degree murder. He said he expected a conviction for second-degree murder, which is reserved for a killing committed while another crime is in progress.Despite that, the prosecutor was confident that justice was served.&#8220;In either event, we&#8217;re going to get justice for both of the serious felonies committed in this case,&#8221; he said, referring to the homicide and the robbery.Finnegan said prosecutors will be pushing for decades in prison, noting that the upper limit for a third-degree sentence is 20 to 40 years in prison.Fannick, meanwhile, said McNeal is disappointed.&#8220;He maintains his innocence and expected a not guilty verdict, based on the evidence that was presented during the trial,&#8221; he said.Fannick said an appeal is likely from McNeal, on both the verdict and some pre-trial decisions.Judge Gartley set McNeal&#8217;s sentencing for Feb. 25.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">McNeal </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL060317McNealCMYK-6.jpg</photo0><caption0>McNeal </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Patrick Kernanpkernan@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Patrick Kernan at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @PatKernan</shirttailMeta></div>

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