A man charged with raping an unconscious woman on IUP’s campus in 2017 pleaded guilty to a lesser charge yesterday in Indiana County Court.
After jury selection for his case was completed, Donte Robinson-Vearnon pleaded guilty to a charge of intimidation of a witness, which is graded as a second-degree felony. The remaining charges Vearnon faced were not prosecuted. Indiana County District Attorney Robert Manzi said that this plea allowed a felony conviction without the victim having to testify in court. His sentencing hearing will be held in two months.
Robinson-Vearnon was charged with the rape of an unconscious victim at IUP in October of 2017. He was eventually arrested at an apartment in East Pittsburgh in June of 2019.
Meanwhile, jury selection for a Swissvale man facing multiple drug charges had his jury selection continued to a later date. David Lee Walker, Jr. of North Versailles was charged in connection with a drug bust that happened at the Days Inn near Blairsville on July 1st of 2019. When authorities searched the hotel room he was in, they found he tried to flush two bags that contained marijuana, heroin and crack cocaine down the toilet. Police seized more crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana, along with cash and drug paraphernalia items.
Walker had informed his legal counsel that he had been exposed to Covid-19 and believed he was developing symptoms, so the courts decided to hold off on jury selection to avoid exposure. No word yet on when jury selection will resume in that case.
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