A trial is scheduled to begin in January for a man charged with fatally shooting a New Castle man in the head while traveling in a car on Portersville Road in Muddy Creek Township in May 2021.

The trial for Paris E. Carter, 26, of Downington, Chester County, is scheduled to begin Jan. 13 following jury selection, which is scheduled for Jan. 1 to 9 in Butler County Common Pleas Court.

Judge Timothy McCune set the trail and jury selection dates at a status conference Tuesday, Oct. 15, after assistant district attorney Robert Zanella asked for the case to be placed on the trial schedule for January. Defense attorney Nathan Fulk was not present.

State police charged Carter with homicide in the May 17 death of David A. Hines, who was 38. Carter has been held in the county prison without bail since he was arrested May 26, 2021, in Philadelphia.

Hines’ body was found in his vehicle along Portersville Road near Route 422 and Interstate 79.

According to testimony from Carter’s preliminary hearing in June 2021, Tashane Henry, of New Castle, said he was driving the vehicle when the alleged shooting took place. He said he and Hines were friends, and he called Hines “Chop.”

He said he, Hines, Carter and Dante Carter, who is Paris Carter’s brother, were driving from Pittsburgh to New Castle when Hines asked Henry to drive his car.

Hines was seated in the front-passenger seat with Dante Carter seated behind him and Paris Carter behind Henry, who said no one was arguing before he heard gunshots.

“He's shooting my friend, Chop. Three shots,” Henry testified.

He said he struggled to maintain control of the vehicle after the shooting, pulled over and Paris Carter began driving. 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.

Henry said he and both Carters walked to a campground more than a mile away and were picked up.

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 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.