Suspect in 100-bullet homicide gets more time to review evidence

A judge granted Jaquez Brown’s defense attorney another extension to sort through the discovery process in the homicide case against Brown.

The 27-year-old is accused of being part of a July 2022 incident in which nearly 100 bullets were fired, resulting in the shooting death of Shaheim Carr outside his York City home. Brown faces first- and third-degree murder charges.

Investigators said Brown and two other men, while hooded and masked, fired handguns as they ran onto the sidewalk where Carr had just left his home along West Philadelphia Street the morning of July 6. A fourth man briefly fired from across the street before hopping back into a car.

Police pointed to home security video that showed the men chasing Carr into a breezeway while still firing at him. At least one man attached a drum magazine to his gun, which could boost the amount of bullets he could fire, according to investigators.

The men then ran from the sidewalk, piled into the car across the street and fled the scene.

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The 27-year-old Carr was dead when police responded a few minutes later.

Nearly 100 shell casings from 9 mm and 40-caliber bullets were collected at the scene, investigators said. They haven’t said how many times Carr was shot.

Police relied on more security videos to track the car as it drove from West Philadelphia Street to Spring Garden Township. A man in an Adidas tracksuit got out at one intersection, and videos showed him walk toward a house in the 600 block of Wheatlyn Drive.

Investigators learned Brown was staying at the house at the time.

They relied on that, the videos, images of Brown wearing a similar tracksuit and data from the car’s Bluetooth system as the primary evidence to arrest him as one of the homicide suspects.

The car, which had been stolen, had an infotainment center, and police said Brown’s phone was among those that synced to it via Bluetooth.

No other else has been arrested in the shooting.

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Brown was arraigned into the York County Court of Common Pleas last October. Since then, his current attorney, John McMahon Jr., was granted at least one extension on a deadline to file pre-trial motions.

A rule on omnibus pre-trial motions in the Pennsylvania state code sets a deadline of 30 days after a defendant’s arraignment to file such motions for relief, unless they’re extended.

At a pre-trial hearing Wednesday, McMahon asked for more time so he could review the evidence, including the videos. He said prosecutors turned over quite a lot of material.

“There’s a voluminous amount of discovery to go through,” McMahon said.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Virginia Hobbs said she had no issues with giving McMahon more time.

Judge Maria Musti Cook, however, was not pleased.

She expressed frustration with the latest extension request and indicated McMahon shouldn’t dawdle in reviewing the evidence.

“It’s not going to get any less voluminous. I’m not sure what you’re waiting for,” Musti Cook remarked.

Though apparently irked, the judge granted additional time for review and set a new deadline of March 15 for the defense to file pre-trial motions.

She didn’t schedule another hearing in the case, noting attorneys would have to file a request for the next court date.

Meanwhile, Brown does have a hearing scheduled for Feb. 7 in a separate case where he’s charged with intimidating a victim and conspiracy. The hearing involves a habeas corpus petition filed in the case.

Investigators alleged that, on another man’s request, Brown called a woman from the York County Prison to get her to drop charges against the man in late January 2022.

Brown made the alleged call while was in custody a few days before he was set to go to trial in a murder case for the second time, according to court documents.

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He was initially convicted in 2013 of shooting and killing a man, Tony Wasilewski, during a dispute over a mobile phone in the 300 block of East Princess Street.

A teenager at the time, Brown was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. He appealed and won an order for the new trial.

A jury then acquitted him in early February 2022 after four days of testimony.

Five months later, Brown was arrested in Shaheim Carr’s death and jailed at the prison again.

— Reach Aimee Ambrose at aambrose@yorkdispatch.com or on Twitter at @aimee_TYD.