We are less than two weeks away from the scheduled start of jury selection in the criminal homicide trial of James Lantz, the Commodore man charged with killing his Lovejoy Road neighbor in Green Township on June 17th last year. This afternoon in Indiana County Court, Judge William Martin will preside over two hearings in advance of the trial.
Judge Martin will first consider defense attorney Robert Bell’s motion to exclude six photographs from being introduced at the trial. On May 31st, the judge removed the photos in question from the evidence stack and said he will rule on their admissibility at today’s hearing. Immediately afterward, Martin will conduct a second pretrial conference with the attorneys.
Lantz, who recently turned 28 years old, admitted that he shot and killed his neighbor, 23-year-old Derrick Davis in front of the Davis home as the two argued over Davis’ girlfriend. She had gone to Lantz’s home after arguing with Davis, and Lantz went next door and confronted Davis. Police say Lantz pulled a sawed-off shotgun from a backpack and fired a single shot, hitting Davis in the chest. He told police he meant to shoot into the ground or the air, but panicked when Davis started approaching him.
Lantz is charged with a single count of criminal homicide.
