Man accused of killing Jennah Seibert ordered to stand trial
Dorian Jeri-Greene was arrested last month after allegedly selling stolen jewelry in Florida.
By RENATTA SIGNORINI
TribLive
Moments after District Judge Wayne Vlasic on Thursday ordered Dorian Jeri-Greene to stand trial on homicide charges related to the shooting death of Jennah M. Seibert, her fiancee walked to the front of the courtroom and turned to face the defendant.
Bryan Murray of Rostraver Township stood there, apparently looking in Jeri-Greene’s direction in an attempt to make eye contact, as Westmoreland County sheriff’s deputies coalesced around the defendant and lawyers packed up their things.
Murray gave a couple of quick smiles in the defendant’s direction before walking out the door.
He testified during Thursday’s two-hour preliminary hearing that Jeri-Greene attended a Fourth of July party in 2020 at the Lenity School Road home he and Seibert shared.
“I didn’t invite him to the party,” Murray testified, but rather Jeri-Greene accompanied an acquaintance there.
It’s the same home prosecutors believe Jeri-Greene, 39, targeted on April 11 when he broke in, stole jewelry and shot Seibert, 24, three times as she lay in bed.
Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Mains presented several home security videos Thursday that showed Murray leave the house for work at 7:40 a.m. and, about 10 minutes later, a person wearing all black emerge from behind a shed with a gun and head toward the house.
Prosecutors contend that person was Jeri-Greene. He is accused of traveling to Florida after the shooting and selling pieces of jewelry taken from the Rostraver home to a pawn shop in Tampa in May, Westmoreland County Detective Jason Napier testified.
He was arrested in Florida May 13 and police seized numerous loose diamonds wrapped in a paper towel that Napier said matched the gems in the 15-carat diamond tennis necklace Murray testified he gave Seibert the night before the shooting.
One of the pieces of jewelry sold at the pawn shop was identified by Murray as a 14-karat gold chain he gave to Seibert that at one time held a penguin charm, Napier said.
Murray and Seibert’s parents went to the Lenity School Road home around noon April 11 after not being able to reach Seibert that morning and found her dead and her Lexus SUV missing, according to testimony. Murray said the basement and bedroom were in disarray and power to the house had been cut. He identified pieces of jewelry and two guns that were missing.
Police tracked the stolen SUV to the Monongahela area, where the suspect made a purchase in a convenience store around 9 a.m. An image from store surveillance video was released to the public during the investigation, efforts that ultimately led police to identify Jeri-Greene as the suspect.
Authorities said they used residential and business surveillance video, traffic cameras and license plate readers to track Jeri-Greene’s movements before and after Seibert’s death. Court papers indicated he was living in Carroll Township at the time, but he now has a Maryland address listed.
Public defender Ryan Kammerer argued Thursday that prosecutors didn’t prove that Jeri-Greene was the person shown in the home security video from the Lenity School Road property.
“There has been absolutely no evidence to link my client to entering the property,” he said, suggesting there could’ve been someone else involved.
Mains conceded that the prosecution is relying on voluminous circumstantial evidence in the case, which he argued would allow the judge to make an inference of Jeri-Greene’s involvement.
