Death penalty out for one suspect in 2021 shooting

The Washington County DA won’t seek it in the trial of Devell Christian, who’s accused of killing Nicholas Tarpley in Donora.

By the MVI

The Washington County district attorney’s office is no longer seeking the death penalty against a White Oak man who was charged with homicide in connection with the 2021 fatal shooting of a Donora convenience store worker.

According to court documents, Deputy District Attorney John Friedmann filed a motion Thursday that the prosecution is withdrawing its notice of aggravating circumstances against Devell Dexter Christian, 36, which made it a capital murder case.

Christian and Sidney Devon McLean, 37, formerly of McKeesport, are accused of shooting 28-year-old Nicholas Tarpley, who was working behind the deli counter at Anna Lee’s Convenience Store in Donora, Feb. 24, 2021, in the back, striking him six times.

Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh previously said in court that Tarpley was not the intended target and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Both men are charged with criminal homicide, but now only McLean is still facing the death penalty if he is convicted of first-degree murder.

Jah Zhanee Inifi Sutton, 29, who was charged in the case almost a year after the incident, spent almost four years in jail before a judge dismissed the charges against her. Christian and McLean are being held without bond while they await trial in the homicide case.

Friedmann and McLean’s attorneys also filed motions Thursday to withdraw a request to have Walsh removed from the case, arguing that the district attorney’s office was misusing capital punishment in murder cases.

On July 22, the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation filed a petition with the state’s high court asking it to review the district attorney’s use of the death penalty.

The filing asks the court to bar the DA’s use of the death penalty without prior approval from an out-of-county judge. Attorneys for Christian and McLean are also intervenors in a petition filed by Jordan Clarke, who is charged with homicide in the death of his 11-week-old son Sawyer in May 2022 in McMurray and is also facing the death penalty if convicted.

Walsh has denied the allegations, defending his use of capital punishment in cases in which, he said, the ultimate penalty is deserved.