Homicide Trial: Prosecution Witnesses

[This is Part 2 in a series covering the homicide trial of Leon Platt. Parts 1 and 3 can be found here and here.]

After six days of testimony and over two dozen witnesses, the prosecution rested its case in the trial of Leon Platt.

Platt, 28, of Rochester, is accused of murdering Richard Hogue, 28, just after 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 16, 2013 in an apartment on 411 Loop St. in Ellwood City. It’s the first murder trial in Ellwood City since 1980.

Lawrence County Judge J. Craig Cox is hearing the case before a jury of seven men and five woman with two male alternate jurors. Assistant District Attorney Thomas Minett is prosecuting the case and defense attorney John Bongivengo is representing Platt.

The Prosecution Testimonies

EllwoodCity.org was present for testimonies on Thursday, Friday and Monday afternoon. All other testimonies are summaries from other sources.

The testimonies of Ellwood police officers David Kingston, John Lubich, and Brian Damon and the prosecution’s key witness, Taylor Foley, will be covered in a future article.

Monday, April 4

Former Ellwood Patrolman Jason Gostkowski

Gostkowski and Ellwood City Patrolman John Lubich were the two Ellwood City officers on duty during the 11 p.m. to 7 p.m. shift on Nov. 16. Gostkowski and Lubich were the first officers on the scene at 411 Loop Street. In his testimony, Gostkowski said that Hogue was conscious when officers and emergency medical personnel arrived on the scene. Hogue refused to identify the shooter.

Gostkowski resigned from his part-time position with the Ellwood City police department in November 2015 to take a full-time position elsewhere.

Dezra Kaufman

Kaufman lives on 1585 Fox St. with her boyfriend Michael Pounds and several other members of the Pounds family. She testified hearing gunshots rattle their house on Nov. 11, 2013.

Platt is accused of firing the shots into the home with a .45 caliber Kimber brand semiautomatic handgun.

Pennsylvania state police Trooper Gary Johns

As Fox Street is in Wayne Township, it’s not in the jurisdiction of the Ellwood City police department. Johns investigated the Nov. 11 shooting and presented .45 caliber shell casings recovered outside the residence.

Linda Boots

Boots is the mother of Michael Pounds and testified that her car was shot in the incident on Nov. 16. Platt is accused of shooting at Boots’ car while it was parked near the former West End Cafe on the 1200 block of Lawrence Avenue.

On Friday, witness Taylor Foley testified that she was with Platt during the incident and also fired at the car with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.

Tim Phillippi

Phillippi lived in a basement apartment on the 1200 block  Lawrence Avenue, near the West End Cafe. He testified to bullets striking his apartment when Platt and Foley fired.

Tuesday, April 5

Laxavier Crumb

Crumb testified that he witnessed Platt shoot Hogue. Crumb had not testified in the preliminary trials, although he had recorded statements with the Ellwood City police department in November 2013.

Heather Hall

Hall, Crumb’s girlfriend, was also present in the apartment during the shooting. However, she testified that she was in the bedroom and only heard the shooting. She corroborated other accounts that Platt and Hogue were arguing.

Shane Mihalko

Mihlako, a friend of Tina McNulty, the resident of 411 Loop St., testified that he was at the residence when Platt and Hogue started arguing. He left the building before the shot.

Sgt. Mathew Smock, Koppel Police

Smock participated in the search for Platt and was one of two Koppel officers who apprehended him along West Lawrence Avenue near McElwain’s Car Wash. Platt used the identity “Mike” with the two officers.

State Trooper Doug Price

Price took custody of Platt from Sgt. Smock and transported the defendant to the Ellwood City police station. Platt identified himself as “Mike Williams.” However, when Platt arrived at the station, Ellwood City patrolman Brian Damon recognized him.

Subsequently, Platt faces one charge of false identification to law enforcement.

Medical Examiner Dr. Todd Luckasevic

Luckasevic was the medical examiner who autopsied Hogue’s bod under order by Lawrence County Coroner Russell Noga. Luckasevic testified that the bullet entered Hogue’s torso and traveled in a downward trajectory. The bullet ruptured the vena cava, a large vein that carries deoxygenated blood to the heart. Hogue died from blood loss.

Judy Enslen, Beaver County Clerk of Courts, and Aaron Battalini, Beaver County Adult Probation Officer

Enslen and Battalini testified that Platt, as a convicted felon by way of a 2010 plea, is not allowed to possess firearms in Pennsylvania.

Platt faces two charges of illegal possession of a firearm.

Wednesday, April 6

Cpl. Mark Garrett

Garrett is a state police firearm and tool-mark examiner. He testified that he had examined the bullet recovered in Hogue’s autopsy, a bullet recovered from Boot’s car and shell casings recovered from Fox Street and determined that all of the bullets and cartidge casings had been fired by the same weapon, the .45 caliber Kimber.

Susan Atwood and Stan Majocka

Atwood is a forensic supervisor at the state police crime lab in Harisburg. She testified that a gunshot residue test given to Platt about eight hours after Hogue’s murder came back positive for residue on the backs of Platt’s hands.

Stan Majocka, a state police crime scene investigator from Troop D Barracks in Butler, performed the gunshot residue test.

During cross-examination, Bongivengo said that Crumb was not tested for gunshot residue. In a statement recorded at the Ellwood City police station on the morning of Nov. 16, Platt said that Crumb was the shooter.

Thursday, April 7

Cpl. Randy J. Macelo

Macelo is a latent print examiner with the state police. Macelo examined the .45 caliber for fingerprints.

He testified that he found one usable print on the handgun’s magazine, which belonged to Platt. His findings were verified by a second examiner. Macelo also said that fingerprints cannot be tested for age and that it is possible to touch a gun without leaving any prints.

Verity Wagner

Wagner is a forensic DNA scientist for the state police. Wagner was originally scheduled to testify Friday, April 8 as she’d be unavailable all other days. However, the trial was postponed until Monday, April 4 due to a juror illness.

Instead, Wagner, Minett, and Bongivengo ran through her testimony and trasncribed the disposition. On Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Jessica Sullivan played the part of Wagner. Minett, Bongivengo and Sullivan ran through Wagner’s entire testimony verbatim.

Kim Foley

Kim Foley, Taylor Foley’s father, lives on 950 Skyline Drive with his wife, Renee. He has known Leon Platt for years as a friend of his daughters. On Nov. 15, Platt was in and out of the house frequently because he was helping Foley move back in from her apartment on Franklin Avenue.

On the night of the 16, Foley was waken up by the house phone ringing. He looked for the phone unsuccessfully until Platt appeared and handed it to him. Platt subsequently left the house. Taylor told her parents to go into their bedroom and lock the door.

Later, Platt returned to the house briefly but Renee told him to leave. When police arrived, Foley granted permission to search the house. He also gave permission for police to question Taylor, as she was 17 at the time. Later, he assisted Ellwood police in searching his garage for the .45 caliber, which was found in a shoebox.

In the cross examination, Bongivengo asked if Platt seemed agitated or was the “same old Leon.” Foley said Platt didn’t act out of the ordinary.

Officer John Lubich [added April 13 8:30 a.m.]

Lubich, an Ellwood City patrolman, was on duty on Nov. 16 and was one of the first officers on the scene. He is currently the case’s prosecuting officer, haven taken over following Damon retiring at the end of 2014.

Lubich testified that Foley wouldn’t initially identify Platt and was mostly concerned with the well being of her son. He later requested permission from Kim Foley to question her, which was granted. A friend drove Foley to the Ellwood City police station where Damon questioned her.

Friday, April 8

Officer Brian Damon [added April 13 8:30 a.m.]

Former Ellwood City Patrolman Brian Damon was the prosecuting officer until he retired at the end of 2014 on disability due to a work-related injury.

Damon testified that Platt was brought to the police station by a state Trooper Doug Price under the alias “Mike Williams.”

“I recognized him and said, ‘Hello Leon,’ and he responded, ‘Hello Damon,’ Damon said.

On the night of the shooting, Damon conducted recorded interviews with Foley, Crumb and Platt. All three statements were played during his testimony. For Although much of the narrative was omitted or changed from the testimonies given at the trial, both Foley and Crumb were consistent in identifying Platt as the shooter.

The prosecution also played a recorded statement by Platt identifying Crumb as the shooter.

Monday, April 11

Patrol Officer Matthew Liberatore [added April 13 8:30 a.m.]

Liberatore, a patrol officer with the Ellwood City police department, testified that he was called in on Nov. 16 to assist in a homicide investigation. He was present for interviews with Crumb and Platt and for the gunshot residue test performed on Platt.

He also searched Taylor Foley’s bedroom at her parents’ house on Skyline Drive for the 9mm handgun. The search yielded negative results.

Lt. David Kingston [added April 13 8:30 a.m.]

Lt. David Kingston is the Ellwood City police department’s ranking officer. Currently, he performs many of the functions of a chief of police, as that position was eliminated in May 2014. However, in 2013, the department did have a chief of police.

Kingston searched Kim Foley’s garage for the Kimber handgun. Foley found the box first, and Kingston, afraid that Foley would touch it, grabbed the gun but wasn’t wearing gloves at the time.

A DNA test of the gun identified four sources, one of which was identified as Platt and the other three were unidentifiable. A fingerprint test of the gun found only one usable print, which matched Platt’s.

During Kingston’s testimony, prosecution played a second statement given by Crumb a few days after the murder. In the statement, Crumb requested that he not be used as a witness until the actual trial. Until Wednesday, it was unknown to EllwoodCity.org that Crumb had seen the shooting.