The final suspect in the deadly mass shooting outside of Roxborough High School appeared in court on Monday for his preliminary hearing. Prosecutors believe they have several pieces of evidence that tie Dayron Burney-Thorn to the shooting. NBC10’s Brian Sheehan has the latest on the case.
A teenaged suspected gunman in the 2022 slaying of a 14-year-old boy outside Roxborough High School, has been ordered to stand trial on murder, aggravated assault and related charges.
On Monday, Dayron Burney-Thorn, the fifth suspected gunman in the Sept. 27, 2022 shooting death of 14-year-old Nicolas Elizalde, was ordered to stand trial after he was apprehended in October.
Four others have already been ordered to stand trial in the slaying.
On Monday, prosecutors laid out how, they believe, Burney-Thorn and the four others were connected to the spruce green Ford Explorer that, officials said, was used in the ambush that led to Elizalde's death.
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NBC10's Brian Sheehan spoke to attorneys involved for a look at both side of this case.
“This was an investigation put on by local and federal law enforcement that put cell phone data with vehicle information, paired it all together with physical evidence and left a very clear picture of who’s involved, including the defendant today," Ashley Toczylowski, an assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, told NBC10.
During the hearing, Burney-Thorn sat silently, listening as the prosecution laid out how officials claim to have used data that the Pennsylvania State Police extracted from a cell phone said to belong to the defendant and GPS information from the vehicle's system to place the teen at Roxborough High School at the time of the deadly shooting.
In fact, according to Toczylowski, the data is so accurate, officials could even tell the location of the vehicle and the exact moment when the doors opened before the ambush.
“We’re able to tell when the car door opens, what car door opens and exactly where they are every step of the way," she said.
During the two-and-a-half hour hearing, prosecutors said a cell phone believed to be Burney-Thorn's was connected to the vehicle's electronic system several days prior to -- and the day after -- the shooting, but not on the day of the incident.
Instead, using roughly 4,500 data points, the prosecution attempted to show that cell phone was in the area of the vehicle when Elizalde was killed.
“While the device itself doesn’t pair on that day, his cell phone puts him in lock step with the vehicle data points. So I think that paints a very clear picture," said the prosecutor.
However, an attorney for Burney-Thorn told NBC10 that the data was circumstantial.
“What you didn’t hear is that his phone most likely was pinging off a whole variety of cell phone towers. What you saw today was the government cherry pick which towers fit with their story and those are the only points that you saw on that map. At trial I can assure you we’ll show all the towers that he pinged off of," said Evan Hughes, the teenager's defense attorney.
Burney-Thorn's formal arraignment hearing is expected to be held on Feb. 12.
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