Donora homicide suspects renew attempt to disqualify DA from prosecuting case
Attorneys for two defendants facing capital murder charges in the fatal shooting of a Donora convenience store worker in February 2021 are renewing their push to have the Washington County district attorney’s office removed from prosecuting the homicide case.
Devell Christian’s attorneys filed the motion in September to disqualify District Attorney Jason Walsh from the case and were later joined by Sidney McLean’s legal team in asking a judge to have the state attorney general’s office prosecute instead.
Christian and McLean are accused of barging into Anna Lee’s Convenience Store at 501 Allen Ave. in Donora on Feb. 24, 2021, and firing multiple shots at 28-year-old Nicholas Tarpley, who died after being struck by six bullets while he was making a sandwich for a customer.
The attorneys for Christian filed a similar motion two years ago arguing Walsh should be removed from the case after he charged another co-defendant, Jah Sutton, and claimed he was using the threat of the death penalty over her to leverage cooperation or a guilty plea. Judge John DiSalle dismissed the motion to disqualify following a hearing in October 2023, although fellow Washington County Court of Common Pleas Judge Traci McDonald dismissed the entire criminal case against Sutton over concerns about how that situation was handled.
Christian’s team is arguing that another witness in the case, Anitra Banks, was coerced in her testimony at a preliminary hearing in August 2021 and is only cooperating over fear that she could face legal consequences if she does not. Banks filed a federal lawsuit in May against Walsh and DiSalle claiming investigators forced her compliance by placing an ankle monitor on her after she reluctantly testified at a hearing for the two shooting suspects.
The new filing is before President Judge Valarie Costanzo, who is now presiding over the case. On Monday, Costanzo signed an order to hold a hearing at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 13 to make a ruling on whether Walsh’s office should be permitted to continue prosecuting the case or if it should be handed over to the attorney general.
Walsh, who filed an answer in September asking for Christian’s motion to disqualify be dismissed that Costanzo denied, questioned why the defense attorneys are making another attempt to remove him two years after they were unsuccessful.
“It’s already been litigated and decided. It’s the same thing. They’re making the same argument,” Walsh said.
Walsh noted that the state Supreme Court upheld DiSalle’s ruling, so he doubted that this renewed filing would produce any different results.
“It’s the same stuff over again they did before. That’s our position,” Walsh said. “They’ve already done this before.”
Christian’s attorney, Ken Haber, and McLean’s lawyer, Patrick Nightingale, did not return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Christian, 36, of White Oak, and McLean, 36, of McKeesport, have been jailed without bond after they were arrested in July 2021 and charged with homicide, conspiracy, possession of a firearm prohibited and firearms to be carried without a license. Walsh has said he intends to seek the death penalty during sentencing if the two men are convicted of first-degree murder.
McDonald has separated their cases, meaning there will be two trials unless either defendant ultimately takes a plea deal in the case.