With jury selection in the Michael Eades Jr. murder trial scheduled to begin on Monday, Indiana County President Judge William Martin yesterday ordered a hearing to be held tomorrow on defense motions regarding the evidence to be offered during the trial. Defense attorney Robert Manzi Jr. also filed a new motion to preclude photographs taken at the crime scene from being entered into evidence.
Martin’s ruling yesterday came after a pre-trial hearing conducted on Monday afternoon. The judge last week ruled on several other defense motions, including denying a motion to exclude a statement Eades made to police after his arrest, a motion to exclude forensic evidence, and a motion for Habeas Corpus Relief as to homicide/murder and robbery.
Eades, who is from Tyrone, is accused of being the ringleader who ordered and participated in the September 2014 execution of 37-year-old Tyron Howard at Howard’s apartment on South Stewart Street in Blairsville. Howard’s body was found days after the murder, bound and gagged and stabbed multiple times. Three other defendants are also charged in the case, with plea bargains possible for all of them in exchange for testifying against Eades, who allegedly was angry with Howard for retaining drug money Eades felt was his.
Of the three other defendants, Kevin King of Altoona and Stanley Boynton of Tyrone are scheduled for Plea Court on June 30th, and DeAndre Jones Jr. of Baltimore, Maryland is scheduled for trial in August. King and Boynton are expected to plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for their testimony against Eades.
