Carter homicide trial set to start Monday in Butler County
A Butler County jury was selected Wednesday, Jan. 8, for the trial of a Chester County man charged in the May 2021 fatal shooting of a New Castle man in Muddy Creek Township.
Paris E. Carter, 26, of Dowingtown, is charged by state police with homicide in the May 17, 2021 death of David A. Hines, who was 38. Carter has been held in the Butler County Prison without bail since he was arrested May 26, 2021, in Philadelphia.
The trial will start Monday, Jan. 13, in county Common Pleas Court.
Hines’ body was found in his vehicle along Portersville Road near Route 422 and Interstate 79.
Carter, his brother Dante Carter, Hines and another man, who was driving, were traveling in Hines’ car from Pittsburgh to New Castle with Hines in the front passenger seat and Paris Carter in the seat behind the driver when police said he shot Hines in the head.
The driver said he struggled to maintain control of the vehicle after the shooting, pulled over and then Paris Carter began driving, according to testimony given in Carter’s preliminary hearing.
Paris Carter then lost control of the vehicle, which was abandoned along Portersville Road. A passerby later discovered Hines’ body in the still running vehicle that was wedged into a hillside along the road.
The trial was scheduled to begin in April 2023, but was delayed until an appeal filed by the District Attorney’s office was resolved.
Prosecutors appealed a Common Pleas Court decision to not allow as evidence a video purporting to show Paris Carter nonfatally shooting Dante Cater in the back of the head on May 20, 2021, in a Lyft ride-share in Atlanta, Ga. Prosecutors alleged that Paris Carter shot his brother to eliminate him as a witness to the shooting death of Hines.
In a July 25 ruling on the appeal, a panel of state Superior Court judges partially affirmed and partially reversed the Common Pleas Court decision.
Evidence of Paris Carter’s alleged flight to Georgia, evidence of his alleged attempts to interfere with witness testimony, and evidence about the Atlanta shooting can be admitted for the purpose of attempting to show the defendant’s consciousness of guilt, according to the ruling.
Evidence of witness interference is inadmissible, according to the ruling.
