Marc Latimore

A bail reduction was denied in Butler County Court on Tuesday for a man charged in an alleged assault-turned-shooting in Penn Township.

Judge William Shaffer denied the request made by Marc A. Latimore, 27, who is currently held in Butler County Prison on $100,000 bail.

Latimore was charged with felony aggravated assault, misdemeanor simple assault, reckless endangerment and terroristic threats after an incident Nov. 12 at a rental house on Winters Road in Penn Township.

His attorney, J.W. Hernandez-Cuebas, said Latimore has no other pending charges, a minimal criminal record for marijuana possession, and would be staying at a local address on Cleveland Street pending further court appearances.

Latimore testified Tuesday, saying he is a veteran of the Army from 2009 to 2012 and received a general discharge under honorable circumstances. Because of this, he said he has made an application to the county Veteran's Court, which informed him that he would be eligible for a residential rehabilitation and treatment program. Assistant District Attorney Mark Lope said his office was opposed to a general release from the jail because of the serious allegations and the “somewhat bizarre” circumstances of the case, but was not opposed to a transition to the program through the Veterans Court, which had yet to be approved.

Lope told the court that the charges were a result of a drug deal gone bad, when the victim, who was being transported to drug rehab by her mother, wanted to get high one more time and went to the home where Latimore was.

“The bartering for drugs didn't go well and she was chased out of the home and Latimore fired a gun,” Lope said.

Penn Township police said the 37-year-old, pregnant Slippery Rock woman reported that her mother had driven her to the house at about 1:20 a.m., where as many as 10 other people, including Latimore, were attending a party.

The woman knew the tenant, Jessica Erdos, 41, but she did not know Latimore.

At some point, according to court documents, Latimore allegedly hit the woman and knocked her to the floor. The woman left the house and headed back to her mother's car at the end of the driveway, when she said she heard three gunshots that she believed were “near” her, police said.

“The victim reports that she looked back,” documents said, “and could see the male with the gun as the same male who assaulted her in the residence.”

Investigators said other witnesses corroborated the woman's account of gunshots. No one was struck by the gunfire.

The victim made it back to her mother's car and the women drove to Route 8, where they flagged down a police officer.

Latimore fled and eluded arrest until January, when an anonymous caller reported his whereabouts at a home in the 200 block of Cleveland Street.

Inside the home were about seven people who ran, including Latimore, police said, who tried to run out the back door, but then attempted to hide around a corner. He was caught and arrested.

Following the shooting in November, Penn Township police got a search warrant for the house and found a .40-caliber pistol, which had a loaded magazine in it and was found to have been stolen from a vehicle in North Fayette, Allegheny County in 2014.

Police did not say if that was the gun used in the suspected shooting.

The home search, documents said, also turned up a digital scale, drug packaging materials and drug-smoking pipes.

Erdos was arrested that night and charged with felony receiving stolen property and a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia. She is free on $5,000 bail pending further court proceedings.