Third suspect in New Castle triple homicide appears in court for first time
One month after a murder that left three people, including a child, dead the third suspect is finally in the custody of New Castle Police.
NEW CASTLE, Pa. - One month after a murder that left three people, including a child, dead the third suspect is finally in the custody of New Castle police.
Nineteen-year-old Anthony Cooper appeared in a Lawrence County Magisterial District Court Tuesday afternoon.
Cooper was previously arrested in Detroit, Michigan and then waived an extradition hearing.
Cooper is charged with three counts of criminal homicide, three counts of conspiracy to commit homicide, one charge of attempted homicide, and one count of carrying firearms without a license.
In court, a judge ordered the bond should be denied, meaning Cooper will not be able to get out of jail during the criminal proceedings.
Cooper appeared in court just hours after two other suspects in the case- Steven Procopio,19, and Jody Lynn Hammer, 41, appeared.
The charges stem from the shooting deaths of 31-year-old Lawrence Cannon, 31-year-old Nichole Pumphrey and her ten-year-old daughter Amariah Emery.
Police found the bodies on October 10 in a home at the corner of West North Street and Robinson with other children inside.
The three victims were found shot to death in Pumphrey's West North Street home.
During court, Procopio, who is also charged with three counts of criminal homicide and three counts of conspiracy, exercised his right to have a hearing in district court.
Investigators and others testified and played a portion of videotaped interviews with one of Pumphrey's children who was inside the home during the shootings.
A judge ruled that there was sufficient evidence to forward the case on to the county level.
Police have said that they don't believe Procopio's contention that Cooper was the gunman.
Hammer, meanwhile, was being held in the Lawrence County Jail on $50,000 bond after being arraigned on a charge of obstructing justice. In court on Tuesday, her case was forwarded to the County Municipal Court System.
She was taken into custody at the Pulaski Township home she shared with Procopio.
According to a criminal complaint, police interviewed all three suspects following the murders but released them after they denied any knowledge of the crime.
After receiving new information implicating Procopio, Hammer, and Cooper, police say they learned that Hammer knew that one of the men had hidden a gun in the home.
Procopio and Hammer also told detectives that they drove Cooper to a Greyhound bus station in Cleveland where they say he intended to ride a bus to Detroit.
