April trial set for 1 of 3 suspects in 2021 Butler homicide
An April trial has been scheduled for one of the three people charged in the December 2021 death of a Pittsburgh man found stabbed and shot on College Street in Butler.
The homicide trial for Hassan L. R. Brack, 38, of Huntington, is scheduled to begin April 7 following jury selection in Butler County Common Pleas Court.
Judge Timothy McCune set the date at a pretrial conference Tuesday, Jan. 7. Brack attended remotely from SCI Mahanoy, where he is being held without bail on homicide, burglary and conspiracy charges.
Pretrial conferences also were scheduled for the two other defendants, Kahlil Z. H. Rippy Jr., 26, of Butler, and Brooke R. Fair Smith, 31, of Butler, but both were canceled. They are being held in Butler County Prison without bail on similar charges.
Butler police charged the three defendants in the Dec. 5, 2021 death of Hakeem Moran, of Pittsburgh.
On Dec. 5, Moran was found at 109 College St. with multiple stab wounds and a gunshot wound. He was taken to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he died from his injuries later that night. His death was ruled a homicide.
Brack, Rippy and Fair Smith discussed robbing Moran of drugs and money, according to an affidavit.
At Rippy’s preliminary hearing in February, Fair Smith testified that she saw Rippy and Brack run into a home on College Street and then run out of the home.
Surveillance videos show Fair Smith on College Street and Rippy and Brack on the porch of the home. Rippy and Brack are shown throwing something under a car on Linden Street, which intersects with College Street.
A knife with DNA from Moran and Fair Smith was found under the car, according to testimony from the hearing.
