Homicide charges detailed
Court documents made available Friday morning detail the circumstances leading to charges against two additional people in the shooting death of Maximillian W. Halterman on Tuesday night.
Alec D. Miller was taken into custody Thursday at a home in Venango County. The 19-year-old Butler man is charged with one count of general homicide.
Robbie Dunbar Jr., 27, of Butler and Lamaria Franklin, 20, of Winfield Township were each charged Thursday with a third-degree felony of hindering apprehension or prosecution. They face up to 10 years in prison, apparently for the their alleged roles helping Miller escape the county and elude authorities following Tuesday night's shooting.
The pair are being held on $25,000 bail each at the Butler County Prison. Dunbar and Franklin were arraigned late Thursday night before District Judge Lewis Stoughton, and are scheduled to appear before him again April 2 for preliminary hearings.
Miller is being held without bail at the Butler County Jail.
According to the affidavit, Dunbar allegedly lied to authorities during his initial interview and told them he had no contact with Miller other than a series of text messages he provided to police in which Miller discussed the homicide with him. The texts were time-stamped shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday, the last one coming through at 9:44 p.m. with Miller telling Dunbar, “Yea I shot him in the neck and the head” (sic).Upon further investigation, police learned Miller contacted Dunbar again around 2 a.m. Wednesday and asked for a ride from a Bessemer Avenue home in the Lyndora neighborhood to a Jefferson Street home in Butler.“Dunbar did transport Miller to the Jefferson Street address in order to conceal him and prevent his apprehension,” police wrote in the affidavit, pointing out that Dunbar was interviewed by detectives later Wednesday.
Lamaria Franklin is also alleged to have lied to investigators during her interview Wednesday around 9:20 a.m. Police identified Franklin as Miller's girlfriend in a criminal complaint.According to the police affidavit, Franklin was with Miller from shortly after the alleged shooting until early Wednesday morning when the two got into an argument over another girl. Franklin told authorities she “had no idea of the homicide, even after finding a spent casing in the front seat and observing (Miller's) odd behavior.”Franklin told police she went to her grandmother's home after the fight and hadn't seen Miller since around 6 a.m. Wednesday. Police reported receiving surveillance video evidence from a Venango County convenience store that puts Franklin and Miller together around 7:15 a.m. Wednesday, just two hours before her interview with authorities.According to the affidavit, Franklin provided Miller with transportation to her parents' Atlantic Avenue home in Franklin, where she was later arrested along with Miller.Halterman was found dead at his log cabin rental unit on Davis Road in Oakland Township with two gunshot wounds in his neck and head region. The shooting wasn't reported to police until a 911 call Wednesday morning, but it was believed to have occurred Tuesday night.
