Bongiorni headed to trial for homicide
A 16-year-old said she began filming the heated exchange that erupted on the street near her mother’s house in Burgettstown one night in April.
“I just thought it was going to be an argument,” Emily Wysocki said.
Instead, she said James Bongiorni, 68, of 24 Highland Ave., shot his daughter’s ex-boyfriend Brian Wilbert, 38, shortly after 9 p.m. April 27.
Wysocki, who turned the 13-second video of the incident over to police, testified Friday during a preliminary hearing in the Washington County courthouse. District Judge Traci McDonald ordered the charge against Bongiorni, a former Burgettstown police officer and constable, held for trial.
Wysocki said she saw Wilbert fall down after the alleged shooting; at that point, she stopped filming and ran downstairs.
McDonald police Officer Ross Youree, who filed the charge against Bongiorni, said during the hearing he arrived at the scene of the shooting to find Wilbert – with a gunshot wound in his abdomen – unconscious in the driver’s seat of the vehicle Wilbert and another man had driven to Burgettstown in.
Youree wrote in an affidavit of probable cause Wilbert was treated at the scene and later at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he was pronounced dead at 12:13 a.m. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office later determined the bullet wound was the cause of death.
Pittsburgh attorney Robert Del Greco, who represents Bongiorni, previously said the shooting was an act of self-defense.
Wilbert had a lengthy criminal history that included pending drug charges in Allegheny County when he died and accusations he violated court orders barring him from contacting Bongiorni’s daughter, Darlo Bongiorni.
In 2007, Burgettstown police charged Wilbert with indirect criminal contempt for violating a protection-from-abuse order by showing up at Darlo Bongiorni’s house, pounding on the door and making threats against her family within earshot of the arresting officer, according to court papers. He later pleaded guilty.
In 2010, state police charged him with the same offense when she reported he breached the order by sending letters while he was incarcerated at SCI-Graterford. The case was later dismissed for failure to prosecute.
In 2012, Darlo Bongiorni asked the court to award her sole custody of their child, citing Wilbert’s criminal record and describing him as violent.
Youree said Friday authorities found a knife in a sheath between the seat of the car Wilbert arrived in and the door. A large bottle of vodka was also found in the vehicle, he said.
Wysocki filmed the incident from an upstairs window and couldn’t make out most of the exchange before the shooting but heard Darlo Bongiorni saying, “‘Don’t do it, Brian. Don’t do it.'”
Under cross-examination by Del Greco, Wysocki said she concluded Darlo Bongiorni was telling Wilbert not to stab the older man – a conclusion she reached when she later learned a knife was found at the scene.
Questioned by First Assistant District Attorney Dennis Paluso, Wysocki said she didn’t see a knife on Wilbert, who had his back to her, or hear anyone refer to a knife. She said she didn’t see him lunge or make any aggressive movements before the alleged shooting.
A date has not yet been set for a formal arraignment in the case.