PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia judge has upheld murder charges against the four suspects accused of ambushing a group of high school football players in Roxborough last September, killing one and injuring four others. In addition, two of the suspects were held for another murder committed the day before the Roxborough shooting.
Homicide detectives described how they linked 16-year-old Saleem Miller, 15-year-old Troy Fletcher, 17-year-old Zyheid Jones and 21-year-old Yaaseen Bivins to the murder of 14-year-old Nicolas Elizalde and the shooting of four other students on Sept. 27 near Roxborough High School as they left a football scrimmage.
At one point in his testimony, a detective played sound over surveillance video of the shooting, a loud POP POP POP audible as one of the wounded teens squirms on the ground in pain, calling for help.
More than five dozen shots were fired from five different guns, according to investigators, but they said the Ford Explorer the suspects were seen using was the key to identifying them.
Investigators showed surveillance video of a group of people pulling a sedan into a parking lot near 17th and Lambert streets, near where they say Fletcher lived, and getting into the Explorer seen in the attack. Detectives then showed video of the Explorer leaving that area, stopping for gasoline at Midvale and Ridge avenues, and then driving toward the high school.
They said the Explorer had an “infotainment” system, which they called the “brain” of the car, which tracked the suspects’ path of travel, moment by moment. Prosecutors said the car's GPS system shows its location at the time of the Roxborough shooting is the same as each defendant's cell phone.
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Cell phone records also show the location of Fletcher and Jones at the time of another murder the day before the Roxborough shooting. They are accused of killing 19-year-old Tahmir Jones on Sept. 26.
Prosecutors showed surveillance video of a dark sedan several times passing a house near 13th and Wallace streets in the West Poplar area of North Philadelphia, then pulling over near the location of the targeted shooting. A trio of shooters can be seen getting out of the sedan: one in unique dark-colored Under Armor shoes with orange symbols, another in a hoodie worn inside out.
Detectives say they retrieved sneakers like the ones in the video from Fletcher’s house, and the other suspect, who they believe to be Zyheid Jones, is seen on video wearing the same hoodie, the same way, inside a gas station near the Roxborough shooting.
Prosecutors also say some of the DNA and fingerprints at the crime scene matched some of the defendants, but prosecutors conceded not all of the testing was completed.
Family members from both sides were emotional throughout Tuesday’s testimony. At one point, there was a clash between a relative of Tahmir Jones and one of the defendant’s family members.
The defense attorneys tried to poke holes in the prosecutors’ case, specifically in cell phone data and the lack of DNA hits, but in the end, the judge upheld charges of murder in the cases of both Elizalde and Tahmir Jones, and attempted murder for the four teen football players who survived the attack. So far prosecutors have not determined a motive.
Teenager Dayron Burney-Thorne, a suspect in both the Sept. 26 and Sept. 27 shootings, is still on the run. There is a $45,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Officials are also trying to identify a sixth person they believe was in the Explorer during the Roxborough shooting.