Jury to begin deliberations in fatal 2020 shooting

Gabrielle Parker is accused of killing another woman outside the Beer Barrel in McKeesport.

By PAULA REED WARD
TribLive

Gabrielle Parker, the prosecutor said, was still mad.

The woman had been in a bar fight in the early morning hours of June 18, 2020, at the McKeesport Beer Barrel during which, video showed, Parker hit Ericka Stevens in the head with a bottle.

Minutes later, Parker got in the front passenger seat of a car with another woman, who police said, passed her a gun.

And 12 seconds after that, Stevens was killed.

Parker’s trial on criminal homicide, conspiracy and a firearms count began last week before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Thomas E. Flaherty.

On Tuesday, the jury heard closing arguments. They are expected to begin deliberations this morning.

Police said in the criminal complaint charging Parker that the bar fight that early morning caused chaos inside the Fifth Avenue bar, which was all recorded on video surveillance.

That surveillance showed Parker, who was there with two men and another woman, Heaven Franklin-Pitts, striking Stevens with a threequarters-full bottle of Corona beer at 1:40 a.m.

Parker, 38, of McKeesport, quickly left the bar, the complaint said, returned briefly to argue with bar staff and left again.

She then got into Franklin-Pitts’ car.

Video from outside the club around that same time, police said, showed Franklin-Pitts standing outside of her black Chevy Impala holding a gun. She then got inside, and video at 1:41:53 appears to show Franklin-Pitts hand the gun to Parker, the complaint said.

Six seconds later, the front passenger window goes down, and within six seconds more, pedestrians are running for cover as gunshots tear through the night.

A total of five rounds were fired, police said.

One of them struck Stevens in the right cheek. She died at the scene.

Parker was identified as a possible suspect later that morning. However, she wasn’t arrested until more than a month later when U.S. marshals tracked her down in Chicago.

During closing arguments on Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Diana Page told the jury that Parker fleeing to Chicago right after the shooting shows consciousness of guilt.

Parker, who testified in her own defense on Monday, denied firing the gun. Instead, she told the jury that one of the men in the backseat was the shooter. Still, Parker said after the shooting, she didn’t go home. Instead, she visited the homes of relatives and friends before leaving for Chicago.

“She left all four of her kids to go to Chicago, and she never went back home,” Page said.

The prosecutor told the jury to use the video, and to use the testimony from Franklin- Pitts to find the defendant guilty of first-degree murder.

Franklin-Pitts, who is also charged in the case, signed an agreement with the prosecution that, in exchange for her truthful testimony against Parker, she will be permitted to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Franklin-Pitts testified last week that Parker was the shooter.

The video, Page said, backs that up by showing Franklin- Pitts pass the gun to Parker. Then, a hand extends out the passenger window where Parker was sitting.

“I wish I had a video directly of Gabby’s face actually shooting at Erika,” Page said.

“But I don’t need that, because all the other pieces of the puzzle show it.”

But defense attorney Wendy Williams told the jury that they should question Franklin- Pitts’ motives, calling her a “corrupt and polluted source.”

Franklin-Pitts told the jury that she expected a sentence of five years probation in exchange for her cooperation.

“She’s obviously very good at getting herself out of trouble,” Williams said. “The only evidence in this case that Gabby fired the gun is from Heaven Franklin-Pitts.”

The defense was also critical of the investigation. While detectives recovered the gun used in the shooting from Franklin-Pitts, Williams said they never checked it for fingerprints or DNA. They also never checked phone records that might have shown GPS locations or messages among the women that night.

“A prosecution is supposed to be a search for the truth,” Williams said. “I would suggest to you, in this case, there was not a whole lot done to search for the truth.”