Indiana County Judge Thomas Bianco will hold an evidentiary hearing today for 20-year-old Nathaniel Price, one of two defendants charged in the beating deaths of a Cherryhill Township couple in October of 2016.
Bianco scheduled the hearing in May after meeting with the attorneys from both sides, including Price’s two appointed defenders. Thomas Dickey will represent Price in the guilt phase; Thomas Hooper would represent him in the penalty phase should he be convicted.
The judge’s stated intent today is to receive any and all remaining testimony, evidence, and supplements regarding Price’s omnibus pretrial motion for relief, and a second omnibus motion to preclude the commonwealth from seeking the death penalty. He intends to close the record on the motions at the conclusion of the hearing, and then set a briefing schedule.
Price and Justin Stevenson are both charged with two counts of criminal homicide, along with robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in the deaths of Timothy Gardner and Jacqueline Brink at the couple’s apartment outside of Clymer. Investigators say they plotted to rob Gardner, but instead jumped him and beat him with a metal pipe, and then one of them went upstairs and killed Brink because she was a witness. Price’s attorney says Stevenson killed Brink…
Stevenson’s attorney says it was Price. Two young children who were asleep in the apartment were unharmed. A third suspect, Isaiah Scott, was originally charged as an adult, but his case was transferred to juvenile court.
Price and Stevenson will be tried separately. Dougherty will seek the death penalty for each. No trial date has been set for either of them.
