Gabriel Smith, 33, will be on trial next week. All three men have been in prison on felonious assault convictions and were indicted for murder last year after DeMarco Conley, 26, died in Pittsburgh in December 2011.
Smith, who is serving a 21-year sentence, faces an additional 28 years to life if he is found guilty of murder, according to Assistant Prosecutor Brad Burress. Shadeed Barnett, 35, and Teray Marshall, Jr., 23, each were sent to prison for 11 years in 2008. Smith has an additional charge for being a repeat violent offender.
At least five people were injured in the shooting that broke out at 3:30 a.m. Sept. 19 at the Townhomes West apartments, following an earlier altercation at the former Grand Illusion bar on Grand Avenue. Conley, who was unarmed, suffered the worst injuries with a bullet wound to his lower torso. Starla Conley said her son lost all of his intestines and other organs as a result of the gunshots.
Conley said she would have liked to see all three face a jury.
“I wanted them to face their day in court in front of the whole world,” she said.
Conley has vowed to be at every parole hearing for Barnett. She was angered that neither Marshall nor Barnett apologized in court.
“I blurted out ‘what are you guilty for, why don’t you say it, say his name, say I’m guilty of shooting and killing Marco Conley, just say it,’” she said. “I got a little disruptive.”
Gmoser said he was pleased to get guilty pleas from Barnett and Marshall.
“This was not going to be an easy prosecution and we knew it from the beginning,” he said. “And it is one that sometimes won’t even be prosecuted, when you have a death that occurs years later and there is some question as to who the shooter was and there’s issues of evidence that has to be retrieved.”
Dave Washington, who represented Marshall, said the plea popped up at the last minute and he had fully intended to try the case. The result was good for his client, he said, because he will be eligible for parole in four years.
“And it gives him some closure,” Washington said. “This guy has been in prison for the last six years wondering when and or if this guy was a going to die. At the time when they were convicted, the prosecutor said if he died they were going to charge him with murder and they did.”
Barnett’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
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