Paris E. Carter

The Butler County District Attorney’s office has filed an appeal in state Superior Court to overturn a Common Pleas Court ruling prohibiting the use of a video purporting to show the defendant in a 2021 homicide case shooting his brother, who prosecutors said witnessed the homicide.

The appeal is over a ruling that denies the district attorney’s office the ability to use as evidence a video that prosecutors said was recorded May 20 in a ride-share vehicle in Atlanta, and shows defendant Paris Elias Carter, 24, shooting his brother, Dante Carter, in the back of the head to eliminate him as witness to the shooting death of David A. Hines, 38, of New Castle.

Hines’ body was discovered May 17 in his vehicle along Portersville Road near Route 422 and Interstate 79 in Muddy Creek Township. The district attorney’s office said Paris Carter, Dante Carter and one other person were in the vehicle when Paris Carter shot Hines in the back of the head.

Paris Carter is charged with criminal homicide in the case.

The similarities of the shootings are among the arguments that assistant District Attorney Robert Zanella included in the appeal he filed April 11, a day after Senior Judge William Shaffer granted defense attorney Matthew Ness’ motion against using the video as evidence in Paris Carter’s trial.

The jury trial was scheduled to begin April 17, but is on hold until the Superior Court rules on Zanella’s appeal.

Dante Carter, who has been subpoenaed to testify against his brother in Hines’ death, survived the shooting, but his location is unknown, Zanella said during the hearing on Ness motion.

At that hearing, Ness said Paris Carter has been indicted in Georgia for shooting his brother. His trial in that case is pending.

In his initial response to Ness’ motion, Zanella argued that Paris Carter shot his brother to eliminate him as a witness to the Hines shooting and that shows his “consciousness of guilt” in the death of Hines. Fleeing to Georgia also shows his consciousness of guilt, Zanella said.

In the appeal in Superior Court, Zanella reiterated those arguments as reasons to allow the video to be used as trial evidence.

Ness argued in his motion to exclude the video that the district attorney’s office can’t prove that Paris Carter shot his brother. He contended that it is impossible to identify the shooter in the video, and that using the video as evidence would force the judge or jury to determine if the shooter was Paris Carter, resulting in a “trial within a trial.”