Lehman attorney at trial: Fatal Johnstown stabbing was self-defense

Apr. 21—EBENSBURG — Witness testimony was heard on Tuesday, the first day of Paul Michael Lehman's homicide trial in Cambria County court, from a pair of Johnstown Police Department detectives, a Pennsylvania State Police forensics investigator and a woman with ties to both the defendant and the victim.

Lehman, 39, is charged with stabbing 19-year-old Deontaye Quadir Hurling to death on the night of Nov. 22, 2018, inside a home on the 800 block of Steel Street in Johnstown's Old Conemaugh Borough section. He is facing charges of criminal homicide, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and two counts of aggravated assault.

Both the prosecution and the defense agreed in opening statements that Lehman had killed Hurling, but one of Lehman's defense attorneys told jurors that the killing was done in self-defense after a drug deal turned sour.

Cambria County Assistant District Attorney Joseph Green told jurors that this case wasn't a whodunit, since Lehman had already confessed to ending Hurling's life.

Gary Vitko, a member of Lehman's two-man counsel team with Richard Corcoran, described the events of the evening as a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle that only Lehman has the missing pieces to complete. The defense said that Lehman will take the stand during the trial to explain that he acted in self-defense.

Both sides agreed that Lehman would often lend his vehicle to Hurling, who the prosecution described as a low-level drug dealer, or chauffeur him when fronted drugs. When Lehman left on the the night of Nov. 22, 2018, without supposedly fulfilling an agreement to allow the use of his car to Hurling after he was fronted crack cocaine, things allegedly got heated.

Jurors in the courtroom of Judge Patrick T. Kiniry were presented with audio of a call between Lehman and Jessica Wilson, a longtime friend of Lehman's and a co-resident of Hurling's, from the morning after the killing. Wilson was called back to Johnstown after she was told that her daughter was one of two people who discovered Hurling's body.

Lehman told Wilson in that recorded call that Hurling had called him after he left the Steel Street house and not only threatened Lehman, but also made menacing remarks about Lehman's girlfriend and family, prompting Lehman to turn around and return to the Steel Street location.

Lehman also said during the call that he acted out of fear when Hurling reached for his back pocket, prompting Lehman to believe that Hurling was going to shoot him.

When Wilson asked Lehman how many times he stabbed Hurling, Lehman stated that he stabbed him until he stopped moving.

Hurling, who also went by the nickname "Taye," was originally from Philadelphia and had spent approximately 11 months in Johnstown, according to Wilson. She said that Hurling was a rapper and made videos, while also doing housework for her brother.

Johnstown Police Det. Mark Britton and Det. Sgt. Cory Adams both testified that they were notified of the stabbing incident that evening and arrived separately at the residence to conduct an investigation, with Adams taking photos of the back entrance to the right side of the duplex, along with an area on the floor near the entrance that indicated that the door had possibly been kicked in.

Once inside, the investigators said that they found Hurling's body on the floor, with remnants of a shattered fish tank around him — including aquarium pebbles and two fish — and multiple wounds caused by sharp force. Results of an autopsy performed on Hurling found 46 sharp-force injuries. Green stated in his opening argument that five of those wounds were considered to be fatal and that eight wounds were found in Hurling's head, five in his neck and others in his chest, back and upper extremities.

A different phone call from Wilson to Lehman the morning after the killing, with police at the residence, led to a short conversation between Britton and Lehman after Wilson advised Lehman that police were present and handed off her phone to the detective.

"To the best of my recollection, he said: 'Mark, I didn't mean to kill him.' " Britton said. "Right after he said that, I told him: 'Paul, stop talking. You need to come in and see me. I want to talk to you. I don't want to do this over the phone.' "

Britton — who, like Adams, testified that Lehman said he knew both of them from his time working at the Subway restaurant in downtown Johnstown — said that Lehman was compliant when Johnstown police set up a felony stop on Woodvale Avenue to apprehend him.

Both detectives were asked about the possibility of evidence being removed from the site before police arrived. Jasmine Primus, one of two people to discover Hurling's body inside the house, was accused of taking two cellphones and a bag of loose change from the scene. Primus entered a guilty plea to a charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution this past June.

While no evidence of firearms, ammunition, shell casings or receipts were found during the investigation, according to Adams, Britton affirmed that it was possible that such evidence may have been removed from the scene.

Former Trooper Brian Kendija, who recently retired after a 25-year career with the state police, analyzed two pieces of evidence from the scene — the shattered fish tank and a vodka bottle — along with Lehman's car, which had after-market paint applied on the bottom half of its original white shell.

Inside the car, Kendija found multiple clothing items with either blood splatters or blue paint matching the color recently applied to the car, along with a folding knife in the center console and a pair of sneakers, he testified.

Fresh paint on the car's rear bumper was collected by the trooper, who said that the paint was not applied on top of a layer of scuff coating, leading it to not adhere to the shell. A photo with paint on Lehman's hands, taken during processing at Johnstown's Public Safety Building, had been previously entered as evidence during Britton's testimony.

Assistant District Attorney Jessica Aurandt read lab reports from state police matching blood on the clothing found in Lehman's car to his DNA, blood on the kitchen floor of the residence to Hurling's DNA and blood located on the basement wall to a mixture of the two. The handle and the blade of the knife confiscated from Lehman's car had a mixture of the DNA of two individuals, with Lehman's DNA as the major component.

Fingerprints on the fish tank and vodka bottle matched neither Lehman's nor Hurling's, while the outsole pattern of the sneakers taken in as evidence did not match the print found outside the house's back door. Hurling's DNA was not found on the sneakers or the Subway T-shirt found in the car.

Jurors saw approximately two dozen photos taken either at the scene, at the Public Safety Building or at BRAT Towing and Recovery, where Lehman's vehicle was impounded following his arrest on the evening after Hurling's death.

Deputy Coroner Joseph Hribar verified in his testimony that he certified Hurling's death certificate.