Teens ordered to trial as adults in Monongahela attempted homicide

Stephen Whatley appeared in court Friday still healing from a black right eye to testify against his alleged attackers, one 15 and the other 16, both of whom were charged as adults in the case with robbing and attempting to kill him in December.
Whatley, 19, of Monongahela was beaten so badly with a safe and aluminum baseball bat in his home Dec. 7 that his girlfriend, Ashlie Burrup, thought he didn’t survive, she testified Friday at the suspects’ preliminary hearing.
“I thought Stephen was dead,” Burrup, 17, testified before District Judge Mark Wilson in Central Court in Washington.
Wilson ruled sufficient evidence was presented to order trials for Christopher Matthew Urista, 16, of Washington, and Jamie Delmar Watkins, 15, of Monongahela. Watkins was 14 years old when Washington County Court of Common Pleas Judge Traci McDonald-Kemp certified him Dec. 28 as adult in the case.
Monongahela police filed a string of charges, including conspiracy to commit homicide, against the teens following the robbery and assaults at 1216 Thomas St.
Whatley and Burrup were asleep in his bedroom about 1:38 p.m. when two intruders wearing hooded sweatshirts and face masks entered the residence through an unlocked door.
Watkins’ identity was revealed after his mask was knocked off during a struggle. Whatley testified he didn’t know Urista, whose mask stayed in position throughout the encounter.
“They asked me for weed and money,” Whatley said in court.
Police have said a bag of marijuana and about $100 were stolen that afternoon from Whatley.
Burrup rushed to the kitchen to retrieve a knife and was struck in the right forearm with the bat when she returned to defend her boyfriend.
Urista’s girlfriend at the time, a 15-year-old from Monongahela, testified he and Watkins came to her residence that day and retrieved a mask and the bat.
She said the two later returned, telling her what happened at Whatley’s home, information that caused her to break up with Urista. The visits were confirmed in court with home surveillance videos from Dec. 7.
Both victims were taken to a local hospital, which called for a helicopter to transfer Whatley to a Pittsburgh trauma center because of the extent of his head injuries.
Watkins’ attorney, Mark G. Adams, said he attempted to have the hearing continued after he filed a last-minute motion Friday before McDonald-Kemp in an attempt to appeal her order certifying his client as an adult.
In his motion, Adams stated Watkins “would suffer grave injustices” in adult criminal court and while serving time in an adult correctional facility at his age.
Jason Walsh, a deputy district attorney in Washington County, said the hearing was held because no order came down under Adams’ motion.
Urista’s attorney, James R. Jeffries, asked for a dismissal because the victims hadn’t identified his client in court.
Walsh shot back, saying the 15-year-old girl established enough evidence both suspects told her about the crimes that day.
Urista and Watkins also were charged with aggravated assault, burglary, possession of an instrument of a crime, possessing an offensive weapon, making terroristic threats, obstruction and reckless endangerment.
They were returned to Washington County jail without modification of their bonds, each set at $150,000.