Trial opens for man charged with gunning down North Hills honors student
A Pittsburgh man whose homicide trial opened Monday killed a restaurant’s teenage cook just 15 minutes after being thrown out of the Strip District establishment, a prosecutor told jurors.
Howard Hawkins, 49, was kicked out of Preeti’s Pitt on Penn Avenue in the Strip District at 8:55 p.m. on Feb. 21, 2021, Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Sarah Weikart told jurors.
At 9:10 p.m., Ahmir Tuli, 18, who was on break while working as a cook at his family’s business, was fatally shot once in the head.
“Howard Hawkins had the opportunity to leave the area, to cool off — but he didn’t do that,” Weikert said during opening statements in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. “He made the deliberate decision to kill.”
Prosecutors claim evidence including footage from a city-owned camera will prove Hawkins killed Tuli, who had been a North Hills honors student.
Hawkins was being drunk and disorderly when he was ejected by a person working security at the restaurant, according to a criminal complaint.
The bouncer, who saw the shooting, told police the man began to walk away but then returned to where the witness and Tuli were standing outside.
The witness said Hawkins stretched out his arm and fired one shot at Tuli’s head.
Attorney Ashley Marie Cagle, who represents Hawkins, told jurors that the burden of proving Hawkins’ guilt rests on the prosecution.
“You will find the commonwealth has fallen short of that burden,” Cagle told jurors. “Don’t check common sense at the door.”
The prosecution Monday called two witnesses, both of them Pittsburgh police officers.
The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Hawkins in North Hollywood, Calif., in July 2021, nearly five months after the shooting. Charges against him were filed that May.
Pittsburgh police had charged Hawkins, who also goes by the name Mark McClendon, with criminal homicide and firearms violations.
Hawkins’ girlfriend, Chayla Robinson, 40, of Brentwood was charged in 2021 for helping Hawkins escape from the shooting scene. Her trial also is scheduled to begin this week.
The trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday morning in front of Common Pleas Judge Beth A. Lazzara.
Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.