NEW CASTLE —
The preliminary hearing of a city teen accused of attempted homicide is rescheduled after the alleged victim and witnesses vanished.
Lewis Brewer, 15, of 509 W. North St., is charged as an adult following an incident involving a gun on the city’s West Side.
Lewis is charged with attempted criminal homicide, aggravated assault, carrying firearms without a license, propelling a missile into an occupied vehicle, two counts of terroristic threats, five counts of recklessly endangering others, simple assault and harassment in connection with the incident.
He remains in the Lawrence County jail on $100,000 bond. His new hearing date is July 28.
Assistant district attorney Kate Fee-Baird requested the continuance, saying that the victims had left court without notice yesterday before the time of the hearing.
“I don’t know why they left,” she said.
Fee-Baird said she spoke with the three individuals at 11:15 a.m. yesterday, but when the case was called shortly before noon, the three were gone.
“We looked through the building and the parking lot,” she said. “They’re just not here.”
Attorney Nick Turco of the public defender’s office, representing Lewis, asked that his charges be dismissed.
“I can assume that neither the assistant district attorney nor prosecuting officer (Richard) Conti told them to leave. I can only assume they don’t want to be here,” Turco said.
He asked District Judge David Rishel to dismiss the charges or reduce Lewis’s bond.
“My client remains in jail and no one is here to testify,” Turco said.
Rishel declined because of the seriousness of the charges, but he urged Conti to find and interview the witnesses as soon as possible.
“If you believe they will not testify, I ask the commonwealth to withdraw the charges,” Rishel told him.
Noting that the defendant is a juvenile, Rishel said he wants the matter resolved as soon as possible.
According to court documents, New Castle police were called July 14 to Bollinger Playground when someone reported that Lewis had struck another male in the head with a pistol.
Police said they received several calls en route to the scene, reporting that shots had been fired. When they arrived, a man told them he was walking on West North Street and was assaulted by three men who had gotten out of a silver vehicle.
A few minutes later he heard multiple shots, he said.
The police said they found six spent shell casings in the St. Paul Church lot at the corner of North and Sankey streets. Witnesses identified Lewis to them as the person who fired the gun.
A teenage witness told the officers he walked from Westview Terrace to the West Side Mini Mart and Lewis allegedly stopped him and pointed a gun at him.
He said a female stepped between the two and refused to move.
The victim said Lewis then hit him in the head with the pistol and knocked him to the ground and walked away.
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