Testimony occurred before secret grand jury rather than at public hearing
By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times
Dominique Lee, 20, (clockwise from top left), Marquis Rayner, 23, and Camren Horne, 20, all of Coatesville, are accused in the fatal shooting of Dominique Williams in June.
Instead of a preliminary hearing, three men arrested in March for a Coatesville murder were indicted under a provision reinstated by the state in late 2012 to prevent witness intimidation, District Attorney Tom Hogan said Wednesday.
Hogan said the Chester County District Attorney’s Office became the second prosecutor’s office in Pennsylvania to utilize the new indicting grand jury process for the three murder defendants: Dominique Lee, 20, Marquis Rayner, 23, and Camren Horne, 20, all of Coatesville.
The trio is accused of entering the home of Dominique Williams in the 700 block of Merchant Street on June 29 and fatally shooting him while he was playing video games with a friend, according to the criminal complaint. Rayner and Horne were arrested in March in what authorities described as “pre-dawn raids;” Lee surrendered to detectives several days later.
The criminal complaint said that the three, two of whom carried guns, were all wearing black t-shirts or other black wrappings around their heads. The complaint said the first man through the door immediately shot the victim and yelled, “Where’s it at?” The second man through the door, also armed, authorities said, confronted a witness at the scene, striking him with his gun.
The two men, authorities said, then entered a back bedroom and allegedly grabbed a jar containing marijuana and other items. Williams was pronounced dead of the single gunshot wound at Paoli Hospital. All three suspects then fled, the complaint said.
Police were able to recover the jar and the black t-shirts a short distance from the Merchant Street home, the complaint said. Rayner was linked to the homicide from DNA on the recovered t-shirts, while Lee was linked to the crime from a fingerprint found on the jar, the complaint said. Horne, authorities said, was tied to the incident based on statements he is alleged to have made to another witness in the case.
Under normal circumstances following an arrest, the defendants would have had a preliminary hearing; however, under the new Pennsylvania rules, a grand jury indictment may take the place of a preliminary hearing where “witness intimidation has occurred, is occurring, or is likely to occur,” Hogan said.
He explained that the grand jury proceedings are entirely secret, so the involvement of the witnesses can be shielded until later in the process. Under the grand jury rules, the testimony does not have to be turned over to the defense until the trial; however, Hogan said ”we generally turn it over earlier to avoid disrupting a trial.”
“The indicting grand jury is a powerful tool that can be used to help protect witnesses from violence,” Hogan said. “In the federal system, indicting grand juries are the normal and established practice, so we have excellent procedures and experiences to rely upon. But we still need to be selective and only apply this tool where it is appropriate under the law.”
To date, only Philadelphia, where witness intimidation has been pervasive, has used the indicting grand jury, Hogan said. The Chester County District Attorney’s Office already is working with other district attorney’s offices throughout Pennsylvania to implement indicting grand juries, he said.
“We are fortunate that witness intimidation occurs relatively infrequently in Chester County. However, witness intimidation does occur,” Hogan said. “I have debriefed Chester County defendants in the federal system who revealed that Coatesville witnesses in the past were intimidated by direct threats, warnings to families, and actual violence. We need to remain vigilant to protect our witnesses.”
