Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Author: Vinny Vella

  • Montgomery County cop charged with manslaughter for killing a college student who accidentally knocked on the door of the wrong house

    Montgomery County cop charged with manslaughter for killing a college student who accidentally knocked on the door of the wrong house

    An Upper Pottsgrove police officer was charged with manslaughter Tuesday in the fatal shooting of a college student that prosecutors said was unjustified.

    Cpl. Sean Farrell, 58, shot Glenwood Pysher IV on Aug. 23 after Pysher accidentally knocked on the door of the wrong house after a night out drinking with friends. The residents, thinking Pysher was trying to break in, called police, authorities said.

    Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said that Pysher was not a threat, and that Farrell’s use of force was criminal.

    “At the time the fatal shots were fired, Mr. Pysher had his hands up, he had no weapon, he did not charge the officer or act aggressively in any way,” Steele said. “This was not a legal use of force under Pennsylvania law.”

    Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele shows a still image taken from the body-worn camera of Cpl. Sean Farrell. Steele said Farrell was not justified in using lethal force against Glenwood Pysher IV.Vinny Vella / Staff

    Body-camera footage recorded the entire encounter, which Steele said lasted “seconds, not minutes.”

    After the shooting, the DA said, Farrell told a colleague that Pysher acted aggressively, “charged” him, and ignored his commands.

    Steele said the footage contradicts Farrell’s account, and shows Pysher calmly listening to the officer.

    Even if Pysher had been aggressive, Steele said, Farrell could have used the nonlethal weapons he was carrying that night, including a Taser and a baton, rather than reaching for his gun.

    Pysher, 22, affectionately known as “Bubba,” was days away from returning to St. Elizabeth University in North Jersey for his senior year. He had a made a wrong turn while walking to a friend’s house, and didn’t realize he was at a stranger’s door, said his mother, Erin.

    Minutes later, Farrell responded to a 911 call reporting an attempted break-in. After arriving at the home, Farrell identified himself as a police officer and told Pysher to show him his hands and drop to the ground, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

    Pysher raised his hands and walked toward Farrell, who again told him to drop to the ground, the affidavit said. Farrell then yelled “stop or I’ll …” and fired his gun twice before finishing his warning.

    Pysher, who was no more than 20 feet away from Farrell, was struck in his chest and collapsed.

    The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office ruled the death a homicide.

    Farrell, who has served as an officer in Upper Pottsgrove since 2005, has been placed on administrative leave. He is a third-generation police officer, according to an interview he did with the Reading Eagle.

    During an arraignment Tuesday afternoon, District Judge Cathleen Kelly Rebar initially set Farrell’s bail at 10% of $75,000, but decided to keep Farrell in custody until he can surrender his personal firearms.

    His attorney, Michael Gottlieb, told the judge Farrell is “a decorated police officer” who “was out there doing his duty.”

    “He did not have any ill will” toward Pysher, the lawyer said. “He didn’t go there with intent to injure this young gentleman.”

    A lawyer the Pysher family, Ken Fulginiti, meanwhile, said Tuesday they are “grateful for the work of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office and they are looking forward to justice in this horribly tragic, preventable and reckless conduct that took the life of their son.”

    In the days after the shooting, Pysher’s family expressed sadness and outrage and said they wondered why the officer didn’t take steps to de-escalate the situation.

    “It was a senseless loss, and it shouldn’t have happened,” Erin Pysher said in an interview. “I don’t know what the officer was thinking or doing that his first response was to shoot an unarmed kid.

    “This was all a huge mistake, and they killed him.”

  • A Lower Pottsgrove man knocked on the wrong door. A cop killed him, thinking he was a burglar.

    A Lower Pottsgrove man knocked on the wrong door. A cop killed him, thinking he was a burglar.

    When Erin Pysher dropped her son off Saturday at Frankie & Johnnie’s, the Pottstown bar where one of his friends was celebrating his 21st birthday, she told him she loved him and to be safe.

    It was Glenwood Pysher IV’s last weekend of summer fun. Come Monday, he would be at St. Elizabeth University in North Jersey for his senior year and one final season as a college baseball catcher.

    Pysher, affectionately called “Bubba” by those who knew the 22-year-old Lower Pottsgrove native best, had his sights set on becoming a history teacher and baseball coach after graduation.

    But he never made it home.

    After the bar, Pysher and his friends headed to an after-party at the birthday boy’s home, according to his mother. Later, as Pysher walked to another friend’s house to spend the night, he missed a turn and got separated from the group.

    He ended up at the wrong house on Snyder Road, pounding on a door and yelling to be let into what he did not realize was a stranger’s home.

    An Upper Pottsgrove police officer, responding to a 911 call for a reported break-in, shot him twice, killing him almost instantly.

    The shooting is under investigation by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. A spokesperson for District Attorney Kevin Steele declined to provide any additional details or to identify the officer, citing the investigation.

    “It was a senseless loss, and it shouldn’t have happened,” Erin Pysher said, her voice cracking with emotion. “I don’t know what the officer was thinking or doing that his first response was to shoot an unarmed kid.

    “This was all a huge mistake, and they killed him.”

    Glenwood Pysher IV was the oldest of four, his mother said. She described him as a lovable, goofy son who spent his summers in between college working.Courtesy Erin Pysher

    She said she reviewed her son’s cell phone logs and saw that he had called his friends to pick him up at 12:32 a.m. Sunday after realizing his error. By 12:35, the police-radio call had come out that the officer had shot someone.

    Pysher’s friends later told his parents that as they drove to get him, the officer sped past them, lights and sirens activated.

    “There was no attempt to stop him another way,” his mother said. “He never got into a fight in his life, never harmed a soul. I don’t believe he had any ill intention toward the officer.”

    Pysher was the oldest of four, a lovable, goofy son who, she said, spent most of his summers working at the Walmart store in Pottstown or helping a friend at his seasonal landscaping business.

    She laughed while retelling one of her final days spent with him: He had a habit of texting her every day, even while away at college, asking, “What’s for dinner?”

    Last week, he joined her for a grocery run for ingredients for that night’s meal. When they got home, Erin Pysher still got that usual text from her son, even as he sat a few feet away from her.

    “As a mom, I couldn’t ask for a better kid,” she said.

    “All these news reports keep saying, ‘A man was killed,’” she added. “But he wasn’t a man, not to me. He’ll always be my baby.”

  • Ex-Sharon Hill cop pleads guilty to trading confidential information for cocaine from dealer

    Ex-Sharon Hill cop pleads guilty to trading confidential information for cocaine from dealer

    A former Sharon Hill police detective admitted Tuesday that he provided confidential information to a drug dealer in exchange for cocaine, using his inside knowledge as a member of the Delaware County Drug Task Force to help the man evade arrest.

    Vincent Procopio pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a computer, criminal use of a communication facility, hindering apprehension, and related crimes. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Deborah Krull on Oct. 7.

    His attorney, Meaghan Wagner, said after the hearing that Procopio accepted responsibility for his actions as a means of continuing “to move forward in a positive direction in his life.”

    “Meanwhile he continues to work on his sobriety every day and celebrates eight months sober on Sept. 7,” she said.

    Before he resigned after his arrest in April, Procopio, 34, of Newtown Square, had worked for Sharon Hill for four years. He was at Academy Park High School on the night 8-year-old Fanta Bility was killed by a stray bullet amid a shooting caused by three of his colleagues.

    Procopio and the dealer, whom investigators did not identify, met through mutual friends in 2025, according to court filings. The dealer told police Procopio approached him, saying he “wanted in” on his drug-smuggling operation.

    Over the course of the next year, the dealer would give Procopio $100 baggies of cocaine in exchange for information from police databases, including whether undercover officers planned to make drug busts in the area where he was operating, and whether there were any warrants for his arrest.

    The narcotics, prosecutors said, were for Procopio’s personal use and “wholly unrelated to his law enforcement duties.”

    The scheme unraveled when the dealer was pulled over in Chester in December with 63 grams of cocaine in his car. He called Procopio for help, and Procopio made calls on his behalf, telling officers in Chester the man was a friend and was in the process of signing up to become a confidential informant.

    Procopio later told investigators he knew the man had sold drugs, but said he had recently stopped. He said he never saw the dealer sell cocaine and had never bought cocaine from him.

    Prosecutors said that Procopio’s statement was a lie, and that Procopio had deleted text messages between him and the dealer that made that clear.

    Procopio and the dealer had developed a jocular relationship, they said. On the day they met, the detective snorted a line of cocaine with the dealer inside his truck. He later went to the man’s home, where they “stayed up all night doing cocaine,” according to the affidavit of probable cause for Procopio’s arrest.

    The two regularly exchanged text messages, including one in which the detective, on his way to Sunday Mass, asked the dealer for a bag of cocaine.

    And Procopio instructed the man to tell any police officer who stopped him that he was the detective’s cousin, prosecutors said.

    In a statement announcing Procopio’s arrest earlier this year, State Attorney General Dave Sunday, whose office is prosecuting the case, decried Procopio’s actions, saying his “selfish, criminal acts also stain the reputations of many public servants who make sacrifices for their communities every day across the Commonwealth.”

    As part of the same investigation, another Sharon Hill officer, Domenic Dellabarba Jr., was arrested for allegedly providing confidential information to the dealer.

    Dellabarba, 27, is charged with obstructing the administration of the law and related crimes, and his case is pending in Delaware County Court.

  • A Delco firefighter was convicted of making racist threats for calling a woman the N-word during an argument

    A Delco firefighter was convicted of making racist threats for calling a woman the N-word during an argument

    A Delaware County volunteer fire chief was convicted of ethnic intimidation, terroristic threats, and related crimes for calling a woman the N-word, among other slurs, during a tense encounter in 2024.

    John Romano, 48, said the woman was “a wild animal,” according to police body camera footage played during his trial last month before Judge Margaret J. Amoroso, who handed down her verdict Monday.

    Romano, the assistant fire chief at the Sharon Hill Fire Company, also said he was “tired of dealing with them,” the footage showed.

    District Attorney Tanner Rouse said that Romano’s conviction “is an important reminder that words have consequences.”

    Delco officials condemn hatred as firefighter accused of yelling racist slurs faces criminal charges. Here’s what you need to know.

    “What happened in this case was not an argument between two people,” Rouse said. “It was a disturbing encounter involving racial slurs, intimidation, threats, and behavior that left someone fearing for their safety. No one should have to endure this kind of treatment, plain and simple.”

    Romano and the woman crossed paths on Hook Road in Darby Township in November 2024, while Romano was using a forklift to unload Christmas trees. His forklift, the woman testified, was blocking the road, causing a traffic jam of irritated drivers who were honking their horns.

    After the car in front of hers squeezed through a small gap near the forklift, the woman said, Romano got out of the forklift, “rushed” to the passenger-side window of her car, and demanded to know why she was honking at him.

    From the outset, she said, Romano was “on full-blast rage.”

    He called her the N-word, as well as another slur, she said, and took a picture of her license plate, telling her he would “take care” of her at her home. When she said she was calling the police, Romano told her to do so, saying he knew the county sheriff.

    Romano’s attorney, Christopher Boggs, said in his closing arguments that the confrontation was “more akin to a road-rage incident” and was not a case of ethnic intimidation.

    Romano, upset at the car horns honking, would have said “awful things to anyone in that circumstance,” he said.

    Amoroso is expected to sentence Romano on Sept. 28.

  • Lower Merion school board member stole $50K from employer to fund vacations, clothing, and a friend’s bar mitzvah video, DA says

    Lower Merion school board member stole $50K from employer to fund vacations, clothing, and a friend’s bar mitzvah video, DA says

    A member of the Lower Merion School District Board of Directors embezzled more than $50,000 from the marketing agency where she works, prosecutors said Monday, and spent the money on family vacations, clothing, and a videographer to film a friend’s son’s bar mitzvah.

    Jennifer Rivera, 41, has been charged with theft, receiving stolen property, and related crimes in the theft from SMB Team, a Bala Cynwyd firm that helps lawyers advertise to prospective clients.

    She was released on $25,000 unsecured bail. Rivera could not be reached for comment, and there was no indication she had hired an attorney.

    Representatives of SMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Rivera used a company credit card issued to her to make the purchases, which began in October, when she had a dress and a bathroom organizer shipped to her home, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.

    Jennifer Rivera (second from left) paid for her family’s vacations using a credit card given to her by her employer, SMB Team, which Montgomery County prosecutors say was a violation of company policy.Denali Sagner / Staff

    In a statement Monday, Lower Merion school board president Kerry Sautner emphasized that none of the criminal charges Rivera faces are related to the district or its finances.

    “As of this time, I have not had an opportunity to discuss Ms. Rivera’s future on the School Board with her,” Sauter said. “While it is important to note that anyone charged with a crime remains innocent until proven guilty, we must also consider the potential impact of this situation on our Board.”

    Rivera was elected to the school board in November, alongside Sauter, as part of the ElectLMSD Democratic slate.

    Her theft from her employer was uncovered in May, when a senior vice president at SMB found that she had used the company card to pay a coworker nearly $1,400 through Venmo, the affidavit said.

    When questioned, prosecutors said, she lied and said it was a business expense.

    But her coworker, who owns a private videography business, told company officials the payment was for a “last-minute” bar mitzvah gig he agreed to do after the original videographer canceled. He said Rivera told him he had paid her from her personal account, but he realized afterward she had used company money.

    He said he knew it was “shady” and was “not sure how she could be so blatantly untruthful,” according to the affidavit.

    The coworker said Rivera also used the company card to fly him and his wife to another employee’s wedding, where he was hired to take photos. He said Rivera assured him she was allowed to use the company card for that, according to the affidavit.

    After being presented with evidence about the bar mitzvah payment, Rivera said she may have used the wrong Venmo account by mistake. She “became distraught” and said the accusations put her in a “dark place,” the affidavit said.

    Rivera was placed on administrative leave, but asked to be fired, saying “the waiting is adding stress,” the affidavit said.

    As SMB continued to investigate, the company learned that Rivera had also spent more than $25,000 for airline travel and family vacations, according to the affidavit.

    At the time of the investigation, Rivera had booked a forthcoming trip to the Bahamas that was worth more than $9,000 in credit card travel points.

    Rivera is scheduled to appear before a district judge for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 2.

  • Six Coatesville men sentenced to prison, two for life, in an ill-fated revenge plot that left a friend dead

    Six Coatesville men sentenced to prison, two for life, in an ill-fated revenge plot that left a friend dead

    In August 2023, Dametrius “Meechie” McClain-Jackson had a path out of Coatesville, his family said Friday. He was just days away from returning to Lycoming College for his sophomore year and playing for the school’s football team.

    Instead, he got caught up in a cycle of violence that Chester County Chief Deputy District Attorney Andrea Cardamone said is all too common in the community.

    McClain-Jackson, along with six of his friends, armed themselves with guns and sought revenge for being disrespected. But the only casualty was McClain-Jackson, killed accidentally by one of his coconspirators.

    And on Friday, nearly three years to the day after the fatal shooting, all six surviving members of the conspiracy were sentenced to state prison by Chester County Court Judge Alita Rovito.

    “There is this idea that what it means to be a man, what it means to be tough, to be worthy of respect, is to carry a gun,” Cardamone said. “It’s a tragic view that leads to too many young people killed, and it victimizes the entire city of Coatesville.”

    At its core, Friday’s hours-long hearing was about the two men who prosecutors said were most culpable: Victor Lara-Ortiz, one of the gunmen involved in the shooting, and Zaire Harley, who supplied weapons to the group and then drove them through the city, searching for their intended target.

    For their roles, both men were sentenced to life in prison.

    Lara-Ortiz, 22, and Harley, 23, were convicted of first-degree murder earlier this year under the legal principle of transferred intent. Though they were looking to attack Elijah Green, a criminal rival, they accidentally killed McClain-Jackson.

    Some of McClain-Jackson’s family took turns Friday addressing his friends, expressing shock and outrage that men who grew up with him would be involved with his death.

    “That night, people I consider family were there, people I trusted my life with,” McClain-Jackson’s sister Lyamoni Jones said through her tears. “But I couldn’t trust them with my brother’s life.”

    Samaria Turner said her brother’s murder has left a “Meechie-sized hole that can never be filled.”

    “My brother wasn’t perfect; nobody is,” she said. “But I should not be speaking about him in the past tense. I should remember what his voice sounds like without having to watch a video of him.”

    It was unclear who fired the fatal shot, and prosecutors were unable to recover any of the guns wielded by the group that night.

    The group’s animosity toward Green began on Instagram, after he posted a video taking credit for a shooting weeks earlier that wounded Harley and another man, and taunted them for not retaliating. It reached its peak hours before the fatal shooting, authorities said, when Green confronted another member of the group, Quadir Lavender, and threatened to kill him.

    The four others involved in the fatal shooting — Markel Jones, 23; Richard Rochester-Cottle, 24; Lavender, 19; and Gary White, 22 — pleaded guilty in the months leading up to the trial and testified for the prosecution.

    Rochester-Cottle and White pleaded guilty to conspiracy and third-degree murder, while the others pleaded guilty to manslaughter, conspiracy, and related crimes.

    The sentences for the four other defendants varied, from 5 to 10 years in prison to as much as 10 to 21 years. Rovito noted that they each played a specific, and different, role in the ill-fated shooting.

    “You knew guns kill. You knew none of you should’ve had them and you know you can’t take this back,” she said. “I hope a day doesn’t go by where you don’t think of Meechie and tell him you’re sorry.”

    The group rode together on Aug. 23, 2023, in a Chevrolet Traverse that Rochester-Cottle had stolen from a Sheetz store in Berks County in search of Green, according to testimony. The car’s owner had also left his loaded .308 handgun inside the vehicle. That gun, witnesses told police, would later be used by Lara-Ortiz during the shooting.

    When they found Green and his friends in the driveway of a home on Community Lane, Lara-Ortiz, McClain-Jackson, Rochester-Cottle, and White got out of the vehicle, prosecutors said. All but White opened fire — having second thoughts, he fled, running all the way home without firing a single shot, according to prosecutors.

    One of the bullets struck McClain-Jackson in the back and hit his lungs. He was later pronounced dead at Paoli Hospital.

    Rochester-Cottle and Lavender, horrified at what happened to their friend, stayed behind with him to call 911 and ensure medics would find him. That gesture earned them some leniency from Rovito, who also gave credit to Jones for calling McClain-Jackson’s family to notify them of what happened.

    But Lara-Ortiz and Harley showed no remorse, prosecutors said, and made calculated moves to hide their involvement, including fleeing to Lincoln University in an attempt to create a false alibi.

    They even lied to McClain-Jackson’s mother, telling her they had no idea what had happened to him. And later, when he learned that White was cooperating with police, Lara-Ortiz allegedly sent him death threats.

    Rovito admonished them both for their callousness.

    “This really is so, so senseless,” she said. “This was a waste of seven lives, and you both actively worked to hide the truth.”

    Prosecutors pointed out that Lara-Ortiz’s involvement in the shooting came six months after he professed to a different Chester County judge that he would stop carrying illegal guns, and would seek a life away from crime.

    He made that promise after being sentenced to five years of probation in the death of his younger brother, Roman Aguilar-Ortiz, who accidentally killed himself with a loaded Glock handgun that Lara-Ortiz had left unsecured in his bedroom.

  • ‘I have quite a bit I can share’: SCI Chester guard distributed cache of child porn, DA says

    ‘I have quite a bit I can share’: SCI Chester guard distributed cache of child porn, DA says

    In between his shifts as a guard at the State Correctional Institute at Chester, David Lemmon sent multiple child pornography videos to users on an encrypted messaging app, according to court documents obtained Thursday by The Inquirer.

    After sending one video involving a girl that appeared to be between 5- and 7-years-old performing a sex act on an adult man, Lemmon, 45, bragged about his collection, the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest said.

    “I have quite a bit I can share,” he told an unidentified person in a June 12 conversation.

    Lemmon, of Clifton Heights, was charged last week with more than 100 counts of possessing and distributing child pornography after detectives in the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

    Arik Benari, whose law firm is representing Lemmon, declined to comment Thursday. Lemmon, who was freed after posting $10,000 bail after his arrest, did not respond to a request for comment.

    The investigation into Lemmon began in March, after county detectives received the tip that an IP address connected to Lemmon’s email had uploaded a video to Snapchat of an adult man sexually assaulting a girl between 3 and 6-years-old, according to the affidavit.

    Detectives served a search warrant on Lemmon’s cell phone in June, and found nearly 190 child pornography files on the device.

    The warrant also showed Lemmon had been sending some of those files through Session, an end-to-end encrypted messaging application that detectives said is commonly used to share child pornography, the affidavit said.

    Within those chat logs, Lemmon also discussed having sex with another user who told him she was 17, the affidavit said. Detectives noted that Lemmon “sent more [child pornography] than he was receiving.”

    Maria A. Bivens, press secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, said Lemmon has not worked at SCI Chester since his arrest last week, and that the department is moving to suspend him.

    Lemmon is scheduled to appear before a district judge for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 24.

  • A Bucks County man who allegedly killed his girlfriend, abandoned her body, and fled to Honduras is charged with murder

    A Bucks County man who allegedly killed his girlfriend, abandoned her body, and fled to Honduras is charged with murder

    A Telford man has been charged with murder after, officials say, he stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death inside the apartment they shared and fled the country, hiding out in Central America for months.

    Darwin David Espinal del Cid, 27, was taken into custody during the weekend by officials in his native Honduras in the March 7 death of Maria Popol, Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan said Monday.

    Khan, in announcing the arrest, described Popol as a loving daughter and sister who cared deeply about her family. Espinal del Cid, he said, ended her life in a heartless, violent manner and then furthered her family’s suffering by stealing her cellphone and pretending to be her, in text messages he sent them.

    Maria Popol was found dead in March by police in Telford.Courtesy of Maria Popol's family

    It was an attempt, Khan said, to throw investigators off his trail as he fled the country.

    But investigators were able to track Espinal del Cid’s movements, in part through his cellphone, according to Khan.

    “This was a place where he thought he would be safe, that he could outrun the law, that the Bucks County DA’s office and the authorities wouldn’t catch up to him,” Khan said. “And at a certain point he may have believed that he was successful, but he was wrong.”

    He remains in custody in Honduras, and is awaiting extradition to Bucks County.

    Popol’s body was found on March 15 inside a second-floor apartment on North Main Street in Telford where she previously lived with Espinal del Cid. Her parents had filed a missing person’s report two days earlier, on what would have been her 23rd birthday, Khan said.

    A neighbor, helping the family search for Popol, entered her apartment and found her.

    Her family, in a statement to The Inquirer, said she was in the process of moving to a new apartment nearby, fleeing what they described as an abusive relationship with Espinal del Cid.

    Khan said Espinal del Cid stabbing Popol in the neck with a sharp object and hid her body in a closet as she bled to death.

    Popol’s family told The Inquirer they last heard from her on March 6, after she rode in an Uber with Espinal del Cid. The two were arguing, prosecutors said, about Popol’s decision to end their relationship.

    She texted her mother and told her she was looking for a new apartment, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Epsinal del Cid’s arrest.

    Her brother, Ronaldo, said she was seen hours later in a video from a doorbell security camera carrying luggage while she was moving into her new apartment.

    The last time Maria Popol was seen by her family was in a doorbell camera video from March 7 at her new residence. She was found dead March 15 at her old apartment she had shared with a man, her brother said.Rolando Popol

    A witness told police that, while picking up Popol to take her to her new apartment, Espinal del Cid forced himself into the car, crying and acting hysterical, saying that he “couldn’t afford to lose her,” the affidavit said.

    When Popol returned to the apartment where she lived with Espinal del Cid, the two got into another heated argument, loud enough for neighbors to overhear, according to the affidavit.

    In the days that followed, Espinal del Cid continued to act erratically, asking his former boss for money to buy a plane ticket to Honduras, weeping openly in public and saying, “God forgive me.”

    A friend of Espinal del Cid who drove him to the airport noted he was carrying three cellphones, one of which appeared to be Popol’s, the affidavit said.

    On March 9, Espinal del Cid boarded a plane heading to Honduras by way of Florida at Philadelphia International Airport.

    The entire time, investigators said, Epsinal del Cid texted Popol’s friends and employer, asking for money in messages that they agreed were not written in her usual style of talking.

    Popol moved to Bucks County from her native Guatemala in 2023 to support her parents, who are in declining health, according to her family. She worked as a waitress at Don Leo, a Latin American restaurant not far from her apartment.

    “She had come to this country hoping for a better life,” Ronaldo Popol said, describing his sister as “very affectionate, kind, and patient.”

    Khan said Popol’s death is the latest example of fatal domestic violence in Bucks County. Since he took office in January, nearly all of the murders his office has investigated have been committed by one of the victim’s loved ones.

    “It’s the reason that we are showing this picture of [Espinal del Cid], not to glorify him, but to ask for the public’s help, because while he thought he was smarter than everyone else, the law was catching up to him and we want the public’s help,” Khan said.

  • N.J. school athletic director charged in Bucks County with prowling outside young neighbor’s window

    N.J. school athletic director charged in Bucks County with prowling outside young neighbor’s window

    An athletic director at a Mercer County school district has been charged with loitering and prowling after he leered into the bedroom window of his neighbor’s underage daughter, Plumstead Township Police say.

    Winfield “Tripp” Becker, 48, was caught on a surveillance camera Aug. 6 looking into the window, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. The victim’s mother installed that camera after an unidentified man spent months knocking on the window at night and then “fleeing the area,” the document said.

    Neither Becker nor his attorney, Thomas Logan, responded to requests for comment.

    Becker lives one street over from the victim in Pipersville, according to court records, and is known to the girl and her family. He was charged via summons, and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for next month.

    Becker is the athletic director at Hopewell Valley Regional School District, a district north of Trenton that serves about 3,400 students. In a letter sent to parents, Superintendent Rosetta Treece, without naming Becker, said a district employee was the subject of a criminal investigation, and had been suspended until the conclusion of that investigation.

    Treece said the district was working to secure temporary staffing to fill the position.

  • A Philly man who said he killed his wife for disrespecting him is sentenced to state prison

    A Philly man who said he killed his wife for disrespecting him is sentenced to state prison

    A Holmesburg man who killed his wife after he said she disrespected him was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in state prison by a Montgomery County judge.

    Jose Luna, 59, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder late Wednesday before Judge Wendy Rothstein. The plea, negotiated with prosecutors, spared him from a trial scheduled to begin next month on first-degree murder and related charges.

    Luna shot Alisett Schubert, his wife of seven years, five times on Feb. 21 as she drove them home from a family party in Rockledge, according to prosecutors. The murder weapon was Schubert’s .38-caliber revolver, which Luna had grabbed from his wife’s purse as they began to argue.

    Luna’s attorneys, Scott Frame and Joe Schultz, said he pleaded guilty to spare his wife’s family the pain of sitting through a trial.

    “This was his wife, he loved his wife, and he has to live with this rest of his life,” Schultz said. “He feels the weight of what he’s done.”

    The sentence handed down by Rothstein effectively puts Luna behind bars for the rest of his life, something Frame said Luna has acknowledged and accepted, remorseful for his actions on the day of the shooting.

    Jose Luna shot Alisett Schubert, his wife of seven years, five times in February, according to prosecutors.Vinny Vella / Staff

    In Schubert’s obituary, her family described her as “a spirited soul whose love for life was unparalleled.”

    “The circumstances surrounding her passing are a heartbreaking reminder of the fragility of life,” her family said. “Suddenly and tragically taken from us, Alisett’s absence leaves an unfillable void in the lives of those who knew her.”

    In a statement read in court, Brinda Millican, one of Schubert’s best friends, said her death “has left an emptiness that cannot be repaired.”

    “She should have been able to continue living her life and making new memories with the people who loved her,” Millican said. “Instead, her life was violently taken from her by the person who should never have been the one to cause her harm.”

    From the outset of the case, Luna admitted he killed Schubert, 48, prosecutors said.

    During an interview with detectives hours after the shooting, Luna said he slapped Schubert during a family party after she disrespected him, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. He told her, after hitting her, that he didn’t care if her family saw the dispute.

    The couple continued to argue on the drive home from Rockledge. During the dispute, Schubert stopped the car and told Luna to get out and walk home.

    Luna saw that his wife was holding her purse, and he knew her gun was inside it. The two began to fight over the bag, the affidavit said. Luna grabbed it, pulled out the gun, and shot his wife once.

    As Schubert turned to get out of the car, Luna shot her four more times, according to prosecutors. He then fled, pausing to throw away his hat and jewelry to avoid being recognized.

    Officers in Rockledge found Schubert on the ground, unresponsive. She was later pronounced dead at Jefferson Abington Hospital.

    Luna was arrested about a mile away from the crime scene, still holding the gun. He raised the revolver to his head, telling responding officers that he had lost everything, and pulled the trigger.

    The gun was empty.