Judge grants leniency for key witness in New Kensington killing
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A Pittsburgh man who testified during a criminal trial last year against three co-defendants charged with killing a New Kensington man was granted leniency Tuesday by a Westmoreland County judge.
“You are going to get a second chance because of those two people,” said Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani as he pointed to the parents of Raquan Carpenter, 21, who testified their son has changed.
Carpenter has been in jail more than two years following the July 3, 2022, killing of 39-year-old Jason Raiford in New Kensington.
Carpenter was among the seven young adults and teenagers charged in connection with the shooting.
He was the lone co-defendant to testify at the trial of the suspected gunman, Amir Kennedy, who fired 11 shots at Raiford and two others who police said where involved in the physical confrontation.
The incident occurred over a drug debt at Valley Royal Court Apartments that led to the fatal shooting.
Originally charged with criminal homicide and other related counts, Carpenter pleaded guilty in March to one lesser felony charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.
On Tuesday he was sentenced to serve up to 23 months in the county jail.
But he was immediately paroled after having already served more than 800 days behind bars since his arrest. The judge ordered Carpenter to be released to live in his mother’s Carrick home, where he will serve up to 18 months on house arrest and a 10 years on probation.
“This really puts the ball in your court,” Feliciani said.
Carpenter will have a 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily curfew and was ordered to attend a special counseling program in Allegheny County.
His sentencing had been pending for the last four months after the judge halted a previous hearing when he learned Carpenter had been cited for disciplinary action at the jail for an alleged threat made against a guard. Jail officials claimed just weeks before his sentencing that Carpenter made a verbal threat to injure a guard with a razor.
The guard who reported the threat testified briefly at a hearing last month but failed to appear again in court on Tuesday, prompting Feliciani to disregard the threat allegation.
Carpenter said he regretted his behavior while in jail.
“I put myself in position I had no business being in,” Carpenter said. “That’s not the person I want to be. I don’t want to be the aggressor.”
Carpenter, while testifying last year, said he spent a year living on the streets of New Kensington after he was kicked out of his family home as a teenager.
His mother, Sonya Carpenter, 50, testified her son initially left the home for several weeks before returning but was later told to leave after repeated drug use and shows of disrespect.
She told the judge that during the two years of her son’s incarceration she has seen a dramatic turnaround.
“I believe he has matured. I think he’s bettered himself,” she testified.
Raquan Carpenter received the shortest sentence of all those charged in connection with Raiford’s killing, including the three men he testified against: Amir Kennedy, 16, of New Kensington, who was convicted by a Westmoreland County jury of first-degree murder and sentenced earlier to 30 to 60 years in prison; and Elijah Gary, 20, and DaMontae Brooks, 16, both of New Kensington, who were acquitted of homicide counts.
Gary was found guilty of robbery, aggravated assault and conspiracy counts and sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. Brooks was convicted of robbery and conspiracy charges and ordered to serve eight to 16 years behind bars.
Braedon Dickinson, 16, of Connellsville was prosecuted as a juvenile and pleaded guilty to third-degree murder.
Prosecutors later dismissed homicide charges against Avian Molter, 16, of Pittsburgh and Jonathan Felder, 19, of Arnold.
Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and a weapons offense. Molter was sentenced to two to four years in a state prison followed by five years of probation. Felder was sentenced to 18 to 36 months in a state prison followed by five years of probation.