Charges held for trial for Markez Anger and Londell Falconer in De'Avry Thomas' death
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Two men charged in connection with the shooting death of an 18-month-old boy appeared in court for their preliminary hearing on Friday.
Markez Anger and Londell Falconer's charges were held for court. De'Avry Thomas was killed in a drive-by shooting in downtown Pittsburgh on May 29.
Defense attorneys representing Anger and Falconer asked for their charges to be dismissed after pleading not guilty on their behalf, but their charges were held for trial.
"Don't think it's going to be forgotten, it'll never be forgotten. This is my baby, literally my only baby," said Deashea Green, the mother of Thomas.
Green spoke with KDKA-TV after walking out of the courtroom on Friday. She was relieved charges were not dismissed.
"I found him like that, I didn't want to. No mother should have to go through that, no one should. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy," Green said.
During the preliminary hearing, Pittsburgh police detectives testified and showed surveillance videos gathered from the day of the shooting. In one of the videos, you can see a black Jeep Compass driving on Fourth Avenue with a man hanging out of the passenger window. He is seen shooting toward a dark gray Jeep Wrangler, the vehicle Thomas was in.
In another video, a white Tahoe appears to be a "look-out vehicle" as it followed the Jeep Compass right before the shooting.
A detective said in court that when they recovered the Jeep Compass in Troy Hill, they found its license plates in a nearby garbage can, along with other items like a can of Red Bull with Falconer's fingerprint on it. The detective said they also discovered prints on the Jeep Compass, one of which was on the vehicle's roof. It matched Anger's fingerprint.
Another detective said surveillance videos from a Sunoco gas station and Allegheny Commons helped them identify the suspects.
Police have said Thomas and his mother were not the intended targets.
"A joyful baby, just know he sees what's going on, he sees everybody here for him, everybody supporting him, everybody helping because his family is going to be with him every step of the way. And I love him, and he knows that," Green said.
Anger and Falconer are charged with criminal homicide and conspiracy. They are facing two additional charges of criminal attempted homicide and aggravated assault.
A detective testified that Falconer maintained in an interview that he was just the driver of the vehicle, but he wouldn't identify anyone else.
The defense attorney representing Anger said charges should be dismissed because it's not known when Anger's fingerprint got on the vehicle and one or two people are still not identified, as one of three fingerprints from the suspect's vehicle have not been identified.
The attorney representing Falconer asked for charges to be dismissed because the video shows Falconer driving by the victim's vehicle, but it doesn't show that he knew the shooting was going to happen or that there was intent to kill.
The assistant district attorney told the judge it is not possible that Falconer was unaware because Anger was hanging out of the passenger window and the "look-out vehicle" was seen. As for Anger, they said they have fingerprints on the roof where someone was hanging out of a car.
