Kahlil Rippy Jr.

A woman accused of having a hand in a College Street homicide in 2021 testified Monday, Feb. 5, at the preliminary hearing of a third person charged in the killing.

A charge of homicide was held against Kahlil Z.H. Rippy Jr., 25, who was connected to the death of Hakeem Moran, of Pittsburgh.

On Dec. 5, 2021, Moran was taken from 109 College St. in Butler to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh with multiple stab wounds and a gunshot wound. He died from his injuries later that night. His death was ruled a homicide.

Rippy was charged in November, six months after Hassan L.R. Brack, 37, and Brooke R. Fair Smith, 30, both of Butler, also were accused in connection with Moran’s death and charged with felonies criminal homicide, criminal attempted robbery and burglary. Fair Smith additionally was charged with a count of felony burglary.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit from Butler County Prison, Fair Smith testified Monday at Rippy’s hearing before District Judge William Fullerton and said Rippy was present when Brack proposed robbing Moran.

She said she considered Moran a “good dude,” and she did not agree with robbing him.

“I didn’t want to, but I didn’t say no to (Brack) because he was very abusive to me,” she said.

The evening of Dec. 5, 2021, Fair Smith said she went to 109 College St. to purchase drugs from Moran. She testified to texting Brack “I love you” to inform him she was leaving the house.

Surveillance footage from that night was taken from a nearby auto body shop and played for Fair Smith in the courtroom. She identified herself coming down the hill on College Street to meet a friend who was waiting for her at a gas station.

Two men also are seen in the video going onto the porch at 109 College St., and Fair Smith acknowledges them. In court, she identified the men as Brack and Rippy and said she recalled Rippy wearing a dark, hooded sweatshirt.

“I seen them on the porch, but I didn’t see them go into the house,” she said during cross-examination.

She later testified when she got into a car at the nearby gas station, she heard gunshots.

Rippy’s attorney, William Shields, asked Fair Smith why she previously did not mention Rippy’s name in connection to Moran’s death, to which Fair Smith replied she was scared.

Following a few questions from Fullerton, Fair Smith said she was testifying of her own free will.

Earlier testimony from Butler police Lt. Chad Rensel indicated Fair Smith was interviewed three or four times and was the only person police positively identified from surveillance footage.

Rensel said Rippy’s DNA was submitted to the state police lab in Greensburg for comparison with samples found on a folding knife possibly used in Moran’s death. The results have not yet been returned.

In Fair Smith's court documents, police said the folding knife with a possible blood smear on the blade was discovered on Linden Street, which intersects College Street. Surveillance footage captured Dec. 5 shows two people wearing dark, hooded sweatshirts throwing metal objects under a parked sedan.

The knife was tested for DNA, and documents show Fair Smith’s DNA profile matched one of the four profiles on the knife handle.

Police said Moran’s DNA profile matched matter found on the knife’s blade.

Another DNA profile found on the blade was deemed “inconclusive,” Rensel said.

During his closing argument, Shields said the Commonwealth had not met its burden.

“It’s apparent that what we have here is one witness who saw some people on the front porch of a house,” he said. “There was no testimony presented here about an actual homicide; nothing ties my client to the homicide.”

He said testimony did not place Rippy in the room of the alleged homicide or in connection to any weapons.

Robert Zanella, assistant district attorney, said surveillance footage provided significant evidence.

“Rippy was present at the home when the robbery was planned,” he said. “Two men ran in (the house) together, they ran out together and they both tossed something under that car on Linden Street.”

Fullerton held Rippy’s charge over to the Court of Common Pleas.

Charges were held against Brack and Fair Smith following their preliminary hearings in June 2023.