Duo charged with homicide, robbery
ADAMS TWP — A suspected drug rip-off plan went fatally wrong for three Armstrong County men.
The plan to snatch marijuana and money turned into a bloody shootout early Friday morning at an Adams Township home, leaving one person dead and another with a gunshot wound, authorities said.
Killed in the hail of gunfire about 3:15 a.m. at the old stone house at 141 Downieville Road was Jason T. McIntyre, 24, of Kittanning.
State police over the weekend arrested McKinley W. Berry, 24, of Ford City and Jacob M. Adams, 24, of Kittanning in connection with the ill-fated stickup scheme.
Both suspects are charged with homicide, robbery, burglary and conspiracy to commit the crimes of homicide and robbery. Berry also is charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.
Each defendant is in the Butler County Prison on $1 million bail.
Major case team investigators believe Berry, Adams and McIntyre drove together to rob a pair of tenants at the house of marijuana and money.
Police identified the intended targets as Daniel C. Oliverio and roommate Jeremy C. Hughes, who only moved into the home converted into a pair of apartments in October.
Adams told investigators that he, Berry and McIntyre had previously bought marijuana at the home from a man named “Dan,” according to court documents.
However, police do not believe the three Armstrong County men on Friday had contacted the tenants to set up any drug deal that night.
Between them, they had only a few dollars when they headed for southern Butler County after meeting up at a Kittanning area bar where they allegedly hatched their plan.
Berry drove and parked their car a block or so away from their mark — the house on Downieville Road, police said. While Adams stayed in the vehicle, Berry and McIntyre walked to the home.The two men, investigators noted, wore hooded sweatshirts and gloves to conceal their identities.Once they got to the house, Berry and McIntyre forced their way in, police said, and “began shooting at the victims.”Moments earlier, Hughes had peeked through the glass in the front door and saw one of the men pointing a handgun at him. Hughes ran to a bedroom and armed himself with a shotgun, pointing it at the front door.Oliverio got a handgun and stood near Hughes, aiming it at the same door.When the shooting began, Hughes was struck in the stomach, documents said. Authorities described the wound as “superficial.”Hughes and Oliverio returned fire.“A lot of gunshots were exchanged,” Ben Simon, an assistant district attorney who assisted in the crime-scene processing, said this morning.Wade J. Brueckman of Connoquenessing Township, who happened to be visiting Hughes and Oliverio, ran into the home's bathroom when the shooting started and hid in the bathtub.At some point in the barrage of gunfire, McIntyre was hit. Berry fled, police said. McIntyre also may have tried to retreat but died on the front steps.An autopsy determined a 12-gauge shotgun slug to the chest killed him, according to Butler County Coroner William Young III.Police in charging documents did not identify who they believed fired the deadly shot. But Hughes was the only person named as firing a shotgun.Adams told investigators that when Berry returned to the getaway car, he acknowledged that McIntyre was dead.The two men walked back toward the house and Berry went up apparently to check on McIntyre, Adams recounted.But they again took off, documents said, after Hughes, Oliverio and Brueckman fled the house, running down the steps past McIntyre's body in a mad dash to get away.No one involved that night apparently contacted authorities to report what happened. Police also noted that neither Berry nor Adams tried to contact McIntyre's family and inform them of his death.A neighbor at 3:17 a.m. called 911 to report shots fired. The same caller mentioned seeing three people, at least one with a gun, running around the front of the house.Police from Adams Township and four neighboring municipal departments along with state police quickly swarmed the home.Investigators at the house found several bullet holes in the wall near the front door and several bullet marks in the wooden railing of the interior stairs.Blood marked the railing and the wall at the top of the stairs.Still more bullet holes were found in the living room wall near the tenants' bedrooms.From the shell casings recovered, police believe at least three different guns had been fired inside the home.Investigators on Saturday interviewed Berry at the Kittanning barracks. He claimed he heard only one gunshot while at the house. He denied he had a gun with him and claimed he did not see McIntyre with a gun.But Adams' interview with police contradicted Berry's account.While in the car speeding back to Armstrong County, documents said, Berry told his alleged accomplice that he “shot back at the people who shot McIntyre.”Simon said authorities have the shotgun that killed McIntyre. He would not say if police have recovered all the guns involved in the shooting.While the investigation continues, the prosecutor acknowledged he did not expect anyone else would be charged in the case.The gunfire by Hughes and Oliverio, he noted, was justified under the state's Castle Doctrine law of self-defense.“We believe they had the right to defend themselves in their home,” Simon said.Pennsylvania's felony murder rule, meanwhile, was applied in the decision to charge Berry and Adams with homicide, even though neither fired the fatal shot.Under the law, all participants of a felony can be charged with murder if a homicide occurs. This is true even if a participant, such as a getaway driver, is not directly responsible for the death.“Because they were committing a felony, in this case a robbery and a burglary, and their co-conspirator was killed as a result,” Simon said of Berry and Adams, “both are charged with homicide.”
