Group held for court on homicide, other charges in Erie robbery that led to fatal shooting

A Lawrence Park Township woman said she was told to pop her vehicle's hood and turn on its four-way flashers before knocking on the door of a nearby ranch-style house in east Erie and telling whoever answered it that she was having car trouble.

When she did as she was told, Julia D. Gaerttner testified, someone from the side of her "bum-rushed" their way into the house.

Saul Felix said he was passed out on a couch inside the house, after smoking marijuana and taking a prescription medication for a cough, when three or four men wearing masks and carrying guns barged in.

It was then, Erie police investigators said, that gunshots were fired between the home invaders and the people renting the duplex in an attempt to rob the occupants of money and other possessions.

The shootout a few minutes after midnight on Jan. 27, 2022, left one of the accused robbers, 30-year-old Shannon Crosby, dead and seriously wounded one of the Arizona residents staying at the short-term rental house at 3904 McClelland Ave. It would lead to a nearly year-long Erie police investigation in which the house's renters would be charged with drug offenses, and to the filing of criminal homicide and other charges against Gaerttner and three Erie residents accused of being involved in the robbery attempt.

Gaerttner, 32, waived her criminal charges to court on Friday afternoon before taking the witness stand to testify at the preliminary hearing for her three co-defendants: Marsea S. Jones, 20; Jamie D. Smith Jr., 20; and Derrick S. Wright, 35. Erie 5th Ward District Judge Paul Bizzarro held the three men for court on all charges following the nearly three-hour hearing.

More:Four suspects charged in fatal Erie shooting during home-invasion at short-term rental

'Young boys' and guns

Gaerttner testified under questioning by Erie County First Assistant District Attorney Jessica Reger that she was working on Jan. 26, 2022, when Wright, a former boyfriend, called her and told her he needed her help. She said she later picked up Wright and another man whom she knew as "Money" and drove to an area of Erie's lower east side, where "Money" said he needed a ride to his aunt's house and where she said she and Wright talked about getting some "weed."

She said "Money," later identified by police as Crosby, came back to the vehicle with two tall, skinny males who looked young. The group then drove to another area of the city where the two younger males got out and came back with guns, Gaerttner testified. She said she was then directed to drive, and the group eventually ended up on McClelland Avenue.

After they arrived, Gaerttner said Wright told her to pop the vehicle's hood, turn on the four-ways and knock on the door of the short-term rental house. She said she knocked on the door lightly, and was then told to knock louder. When she did, Gaerttner said someone forced their way past her and went into the house.

When Reger asked Gaerttner what was happening at the time, Gaerttner replied that "they were trying to get into the house" and "they were trying to do something bad." She said she did not know it was going to be a robbery, and stated that there was no talk in the vehicle about committing a robbery before the group arrived on McClelland Avenue.

Gaerttner said she ran to her vehicle after the others went into the house and heard gunshots.

A fateful trip to sell drugs

According to investigators, Felix and three friends had traveled to Erie from Arizona to sell a quantity of fentanyl to a local contact for $30,000. The Arizona group arrived in Erie a few days before the shooting and were involved in two drug deals before the confrontation at the rental house, investigators reported.

During the shootout, one member of the group, Kortez Murray, was wounded.

Felix, Murray and fellow Arizona residents Abner Gonzalez and Deontray Keomany-Smith were charged by Erie police with drug offenses related to the incident.

Felix testified Friday afternoon that the group was in the McClelland Avenue rental house on the morning of the shooting. He said he was sleeping on the sofa when he heard banging on the door and three or four males wearing masks and carrying guns came in, and he was ordered to get on the ground.

Felix said after he got on the ground, one of the robbers grabbed him by the hair, pulled him into the kitchen and asked where the money was. He said he felt a gun to the back of his head as the robber told him not to move and said everything was going to be all right.

Felix said he then heard gunshots coming from the living room. When Reger asked how many shots, he said it was too many to count.

Felix said the robbers ran out of the house, and after he called to check on his friends he found that Murray had been shot. He said he tried to stop the bleeding before the group went outside to their car, and he drove Murray to the hospital.

While outside, Felix said he saw four people holding another person in he street, "but they couldn't put him in the car."

Felix testified under questioning by Reger that he first heard gunshots after he was dragged into the kitchen. But he said under cross-examination that he heard gunshots when the robbers first entered the house, then heard more shots when he was taken into the kitchen.

Felix also said under cross-examination that the Arizona group brought three guns with them when they traveled to Erie, but had sold two of the weapons.

More:Details in Erie slaying at rental house remain scant as Arizona man waives drug charges

Erie police wrote in case documents that shell casings recovered at the shooting scene including casings that were matched to a Glock .40-caliber handgun that Smith was found in possession of during a traffic stop in Erie on April 9, 2022.

Investigators also wrote that Jones was connected to the incident through a pair of discarded latex gloves that police found near the shooting scene. When police later interviewed Jones, he told detectives that he, Crosby, Smith and two others identified as Gaerttner and Wright had gone to the McClelland Avenue rental house. After they entered the rental house, Jones said shots were fired, according to information in the criminal complaints.

Second Arizona man sentenced

A few hours before Felix testified at the preliminary hearing on Friday, he appeared in Erie County Common Pleas Court to plead guilty to misdemeanor counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance.

Erie County Judge David Ridge sentenced Felix to two years of probation on his pleas.

The paraphernalia charge to which Felix pleaded was changed from a felony count of conspiracy to commit possession with intent to deliver under an agreement reached between prosecutors and Felix's lawyer, Eric Hackwelder. Reger told Ridge that her office would not object to a probationary sentence for Felix, which Hackwelder had asked the judge to consider.

The lawyers noted in court Felix's decision to stay with Murray after Murray was shot.

"I regret everything," Felix told Ridge as he addressed the court before sentencing.

Ridge told Felix that if he had not come to Erie and had not gotten involved in the acts that occurred, "some of these other things would not have happened."

Gonzalez, 21, pleaded guilty in December to a felony count of conspiracy to commit possession with intent to deliver and was sentence to eight to 23 months in prison, with credit for time he had already spent incarcerated. He was also sentenced to three years of probation.

More:Arizona man sentenced in drug dealing tied to fatal shooting of Erie man at rental house

Murray, 19, and Keomany-Smith, 20, are each awaiting trial.

Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Five held for court on homicide in fatal shooting at Erie rental house