Hearing in case of slain pregnant woman postponed for evidence review
Aimee AmbroseA Spring Garden Township man will get a few more months to delve into evidence while charged with stabbing and killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend.
Terence Brabham, 36, faces first- and third-degree murder charges and counts of first- and third-degree murder following the deaths of Tamarra Deloache and her unborn baby, her second child, last May.
He’s also charged in a robbery from 2015 after police said his DNA, taken as part of the homicide investigation, matched to evidence from the robbery.
He went to court Feb. 23 for status hearings in his cases. A judge approved a request to push the cases back to the end of May to give Brabham’s attorney more time to review and gather evidence.
Investigators allege Brabham stabbed Deloache in an upstairs apartment of a home in the first block of North State Street on the night of May 17.
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Police found the 32-year-old Deloache dead at the scene. She was about six months pregnant with her second child at the time.
Brabham allegedly left the house while dripping blood from an injured hand, creating a trail up the block, police said. Security camera video shows a man, allegedly Brabham, return to the house an hour later and carrying what appears to be a bleach jug.
The man is then seen in the video jumping from a second-story kitchen window a short time later, leaving blood on the sill and the sidewalk below, police said in charging documents.
Deloach died as she and Brabham entered a new round in an approximately 12-year custody dispute over a child, her first, that they had together.
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Brabham was arrested about a month after Deloache’s death after he and an attorney met with detectives and prosecutors, police said.
Investigators also took a sample of his DNA as part of the investigation.
He was charged again a couple months later in a separate case after Springettsbury Township Police said his DNA sample matched a profile taken from evidence at a robbery scene. Investigators alleged he held up workers at a Gabriel Bros. store, including pointing a gun at a manager’s head, stole cash from a safe, and then fled in November 2015.
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The robber in that case dropped a bandanna that covered his face outside the store, police alleged. When they recovered it, investigators pulled DNA evidence from the material but couldn’t match it to anyone.
Investigators said a Pennsylvania State Police forensics lab matched the bandana sample to the sample taken after Brabham’s arrest.
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He faces two felony counts of robbery and misdemeanor counts of theft, receiving stolen property and reckless endangerment in that case.
York County Court of Common Pleas Judge Harry Ness scheduled the next hearing for May 31.
— Reach Aimee Ambrose at aambrose@yorkdispatch.com or on Twitter at @aimee_TYD.
