Published: November 07, 2005 11:37 pm            

Trial under way in city murder

EBENSBURG — Tips concerning threats against a drug dealer named “Woo” initially led Johnstown police to investigate the possibility that Darnell Alexander had been slain by two Pittsburgh men, witnesses testified Monday.

But the probe shifted to Johnstown after Amanda DeAngelis, Alexander’s girlfriend, gave police information about his whereabouts the night he was killed, city Detective Thomas Owens said.

Owens was among 13 witnesses called by the prosecution in the opening day of testimony in the murder trial of Alexander Bush Jr., a Harrisburg-area man who formerly lived in Johnstown.

Bush, 27, is charged with first-degree murder and robbery in the slaying of Alexander in a secluded area off Plum Street in the city’s Woodvale section.

Alexander, who had been living in Johnstown prior to his death, was a drug dealer originally from Pittsburgh and used the street name “Woo,” prosecutors say.

Police allege it was a drug-related killing. Bush stole an unknown amount of cash from Alexander.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Bush faces a mandatory life sentence without possibility of parole.

The trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. today, when prosecutors are expected to continue to question witnesses about Alexander’s whereabouts before he was killed early on Sept. 24, 2004.

He died from two gunshot wounds – one to the head and one to his neck.

Defense attorneys claim Bush was attempting to protect himself from being killed by Alexander, who reportedly had learned that Bush was a police informant.

Two days before Alexander’s body was discovered, Richland Township police told city police that two Pittsburghers with the street names “Dray” and “Binda” were headed to Johnstown to kill “Woo” and Jerome Rozier of Johnstown, Owens said.

At that point, city police did not know who “Woo” was but got word to Rozier about a possible attempt on his life, Officer Reginald Floyd said.

Rozier appeared to discount them, saying only, “Yeah, yeah, heard about that but nothing to it,” Floyd recalled. Rozier did not indicate that he knew “Woo,” the officer said.

But Rozier actually was with Bush and Alexander at the Pony Lounge in Richland Township before the fatal shooting, Owens testified.

Police also say a fourth man, known as “Black,” was with the men that night but did not go into the nightclub because he had no identification with him.

Prosecutors expected to call Rozier and DeAngelis to testify.

The shooting apparently took place around 3 a.m.

That’s when Kevin Jacoby of the 600 block of Jacoby Street “heard two or three pop sounds that sounded like a gun.” Jacoby testified that he had been sitting in his kitchen because he was unable to sleep.

Another neighbor, Clyde Clawson, said he was awakened by his dog barking around 2:30 a.m.

When the dog would not stop barking, Clawson got out of bed, looked out a window and saw a silver-colored, medium-sized car with a dark stripe on its side parked nearby.

Standing by it was one black man who appeared to be “worried,” Clawson said.

A bit later, when the dog again began barking, Clawson said he “saw two fellas running down the road. They were running side by side. They got into the car and left.”

However, Clawson said that he didn’t hear any gunshots and didn’t think anything was wrong.

“I just thought they were fooling around up there,” he said.



Sandra K. Reabuck can be reached at 539-5320 or sreabuck@tribdem.com.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.