Lawyers request venue change
WILKES-BARRE - Lawyers for a suspect in a triple homicide in Plymouth last year filed a laundry list of motions Friday seeking a change of venue, to suppress statements to police and evidence collected in an "illegal search," and to have the teen tried as a juvenile.
Sawud Davis, 17, of Philadelphia, is being held at the Luzerne County jail along with his brother on charges of criminal homicide, attempted homicide and robbery.
Mr. Davis and Mr. Hamilton, also of Philadelphia, are charged with killing Bradley James Swartwood, 21, and Nicolas Robert Maldonado, 17, both of 401 First St., Plymouth, and Lisa Abaunza, a 15-year-old Scranton Prep student from Duryea, during a botched drug robbery in July. They will stand trial together Sept. 9.
Lawyers want judge to toss evidence
WILKES-BARRE - State police violated teen murder suspect Cody Lee's constitutional rights when they seized from his home a backpack and notebook containing a hit list detailing a grisly crime spree, defense lawyers argued in motions filed Friday.
Mr. Lee is accused of shooting his 80-year-old great-grandfather, Herbert Lee, in the head with a .222-caliber rifle in December 2009.
Man pleads guilty in fatal hit-and-run
WILKES-BARRE - Just weeks after hiring a new attorney and firing off court documents attacking the prosecution's case, a 60-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday in Luzerne County Court for a fatal hit-and-run last year in Pittston Twp.
Walter Raven pleaded guilty to fleeing the scene of a fatal crash, a charge formally known as accidents involving death or personal injury. The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in prison and a maximum of seven years.