Levittown triple murder suspect held for trial despite refusal to leave jail for hearing

A former Falls Township man will head to trial on charges that he killed his stepmother, teenage sister and the mother of his two children after a judge heard 911 recordings of two victims pleading for help and from two of the survivors of the fatal March crime spree that spanned from Lower Bucks County to Trenton.

The preliminary hearing for Andre Gordon Jr. was held Wednesday, after a 90-minute delay, without him when the 26-year-old defendant would not leave his jail cell at the county prison in Doylestown.

More on triple murder in Falls Levittown triple murder suspect Andre Gordon Jr. arraigned; Bucks County DA seeks death penalty

Public defender Deborah Weinman, part of Gordon's public defender team, attempted to persuade District Judge Terrance Hughes to continue the hearing to another date expressing concerns about her client's mental competency to participate in his defense.

But Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn argued that Gordon was well aware he was expected to appear at his preliminary hearing, and that the belief a defendant is not mentally competent doesn't mean a defendant is incompetent.

Hughes allowed the hearing to proceed.

Following more than two hours of witness testimony, which included harrowing 911 calls from two of Gordon's three victims, home surveillance and police body camera footage of the murder scenes, Hughes held Gordon for trial on all charges plus a newly added offense — the attempted murder of his father, Andre Gordon Sr.

The elder Gordon had a brief confrontation with his son at the front door of the family's Viewpoint Lane home moments before Andre Jr. used a semi-automatic "ghost gun" to break the window on the door and open fire.

Gordon is facing a long list of offenses including three first-degree murder charges in the deaths of his stepmother, Karen Murphy Gordon, 52, his half-sister Kera Gordon, 13, and Taylor Daniel, his ex-girlfriend and mother of his two children. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

What we know about shooting victims Youngest victim of Levittown shooting just 13. She was a Pennsbury eighth-grader

Authorities have not released a motive for the killings.

On Wednesday, Nancy Daniel, Taylor's mother, testified that her daughter had spoken to a lawyer and police officer about filing for a protection from abuse order against Gordon, though she had not started the process.

Gordon had been to the house twice in the weeks before the shooting, Daniel said. The last time was eight days before the violent spree. Daniel testified that when she threatened to call police after Gordon showed up late on Friday night, he left.

Authorities allege after killing his stepmother and sister Saturday morning, Gordon drove less than three miles to the Edgewood Lane home where Daniel and his children lived. He broke down a door to enter the house, then kicked in the locked bedroom door where Taylor and her children were hiding. Gordon allegedly shot Daniel in front of the couple’s children, who are 3- and 5. The children were less than two feet away from their mother when she was shot, authorities said, but they were not injured. One of the children could be heard on the 911 call, trying to awaken her mother after the woman was shot.

Nancy Daniel, attacked Gordon using a wood ax handle, but she suffered a facial injury after Gordon hit her with his weapon, police said.After leaving Daniel’s home, Gordon drove toward Trenton, New Jersey, ditching the stolen car in Morrisville then allegedly carjacking at gunpoint another person in the parking lot of the Dollar General on Bristol Pike.

Matthew Bill testified Wednesday he was filling up a tire on his girlfriend's car shortly after 9 a.m. when Gordon approached him. He initially thought he was panhandling, until he showed him what appeared to be a long-barrelled gun.

"He obviously wanted the vehicle in a dire way," Bill testified.

The second stolen car was found abandoned in Trenton near a home on Phillips Avenue where Gordon holed up. He was arrested hours later, after cutting his braids, when a family friend recognized him walking a few blocks from the Phillips Avenue home, police said.

Gordon also faces charges in Mercer County, New Jersey where his alleged crime spree started, and ended nine hours later near the Trenton home of a family member where he had barricaded himself. He also allegedly carjacked a woman in Trenton before driving to his parents' Vermillion Hills home.

Little is known about Gordon, who was reportedly homeless. He was born in Jamaica and his father brought him to the U.S. when he was a teenager. Recordings played in court captured the men arguing before the shootings began.He graduated from Pennsbury High School in 2016, where he met Daniel; the couple had an on and off relationship that ended in March 2023.

Gordon will be held without bail until trial.

Reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at jciavaglia@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Levittown triple murder suspect Andre Gordon caputured on 911 calls