At criminal call this morning at the Indiana County Courthouse, attorneys for Nathaniel Price and Brady DiStefano have requested that their respective hearings be delayed. No word yet if the judge has granted this request.
Price is charged with two counts of criminal homicide and single counts of robbery and conspiracy to robbery in the beating deaths of a Cherryhill Township couple in October of 2016. He went with co-conspirator Justin Stevenson to the apartment of Timothy Gardner and Jacqueline Brink to allegedly purchase marijuana, but their intent was to rob the two. The two jumped Gardner and beat him to death with a metal pipe, then one of the defendants went upstairs and beat Brink to death because she was a witness. Stevenson claims Price killed Brink, while Price claimed Stevenson killed Brink. Stevenson is already serving a sentence of life in prison without parole for guilty pleas to second degree murder charges.
DiStefano, a 21-year-old from Johnstown, is the former IUP student charged with aggravated assault for the death of his fraternity brother, 20-year-old Caleb Zweig of Rockville, Maryland in February 2017. Distefano was originally charged with criminal homicide and aggravated assault, but Judge William Martin dismissed the charges based on insufficient evidence that the fire in which the two engaged was to blame for Zweig’s death. Last October, State Superior Court reinstated the aggravated assault charge on appeal by District Attorney Pat Dougherty.
