Local News
Ex-Georgia man charged in killing
Detroit man was shot, robbed in ’08
FARRELL — A 20-year-old Shenango Valley man who came to the area from the Atlanta suburbs and has been busted with crack cocaine and marijuana is facing homicide, burglary and conspiracy charges stemming from the Dec. 20, 2008, shooting death and robbery of a Detroit-area man on Farrell’s main drag.
Troy Lamont Coleman, 38, of Detroit, was robbed, shot and killed in the 1200 block of Roemer Boulevard, after a night spent drinking at bars in Farrell. Cash was taken from Coleman but a 61-gram “cookie” of crack cocaine was found in his inside coat pocket during the autopsy.
He was shot at close range with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, police said.
Southwest Mercer County Regional police detectives have spent much of the past year working the case and Thursday charged Phillip Carnell Phifer, 20, whose last known address was on Mesabi Street in Sharon and who came to the area from Union City, Ga., near Atlanta.
Phifer was already in Mercer County Jail on an unrelated parole violation when Southwest authorities transported him to District Judge Ronald E. Antos, Farrell, to formally arraign him on charges of criminal homicide and burglary and conspiracy to commit both crimes.
It wasn’t the first time Phifer, who goes by “Dred” on the street, claimed he had “murked” — slang for murdered — someone, police said.
Four unidentified witnesses helped police crack the case.
Three male co-conspirators who haven’t been identified or charged were at a house in the 1000 block of Hamilton Avenue when a female co-conspirator called and told them that a dude was passed out in a vehicle on Roemer Boulevard.
They wanted to rob Coleman, but needed a gun for protection. The drove by the car Coleman was passed out in, then saw Phifer walking in the 1000 block of Wallis Avenue. He told them he had a gun.
They went back to where Coleman was parked and rifled through his pockets. At some point Coleman came to and police allege Phifer shot him, firing twice initially then another six or seven shots, according to a cooperative witness.
Phifer told people in Farrell he had shot a man in Atlanta over a woman before he came here.
Dred also told people he shot Coleman, police said.
The case was the result of “good legwork by several officers,” Southwest Chief Riley Smoot said.
Detectives “diligently didn’t give up on (the case) on behalf of the victim and the victim’s family, Smoot said.
Police initially had different suspects in the case, but Quentin Darrell Mathews and Michael William “M.J.” Golden were eliminated as suspects.
Police matched DNA results from a water bottle Pfifer drank from during an unrelated interrogation to a cigarette butt found at the shooting scene, according to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case.
“Investigators did an outstanding job to bring the case to this point,” Smoot said.
More people will be charged in the case, he said.
Phifer is being held in Mercer County Jail.
People facing homicide charges are not allowed bail in the commonwealth.
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke
Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
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Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
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City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
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Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
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Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
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City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
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Near-complete addition to let man come home
Although the weather delayed the start of Penny and Paul Strechansky’s construction project by about three weeks, the end of the sawing, hammering and stapling is in sight.
“It should be done by the middle of next week,” Strechansky said of the 15-by-20 foot addition being built onto the back of his garage in Hermitage, which will be the new home of his grandson, David Johnson.
Johnson was critically injured in a car crash June 19, 2009, on what is now Interstate 376 in Lawrence County. The crash rendered Johnson, who just turned 21, blind and brain damaged. He is unable to care for himself.
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Man prison-bound for role in drug buy shooting
It may never be known for certain who fired the two fatal shots that killed a Sharon teen on Nov. 6 on Wallis Avenue during a botched drug deal, prosecutors have said.
But Christopher Swogger, 24, Sharon, was fingered by at least one other suspect as the one whose bullets killed John B. Hosey III, 18, of 422 Meek St. Swogger was sentenced Monday.
Swogger was sent to prison for 1 1/2 to 3 years for having a firearm without a license, ending his role in the criminal prosecutions of the drug deal turned shooting.
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Farrell, Sharon to revisit merger
Times are tough.
In Farrell Monday night, city council heard a grim financial report from City Manager LaVon Saternow.
“It’s not a pretty picture,” Mrs. Saternow said. “We could conceivably run out of cash by the end of the year. I don’t know how to put it more bluntly.”
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
