A Pennsylvania pass judgement on rejected the protection’s request to drop the case towards a person accused of killing a pregnant Amish girl and her unborn kid and despatched the case to a tribulation court docket at a initial listening to Friday after witnesses shared damning proof.
Shawn Cranston, a 52-year-old trucker, is accused of barging into the house of Rebekah Byler, 23, and killing her. She used to be six months pregnant.
The protection argued that prosecutors didn’t supply a cause or homicide weapon and requested the pass judgement on to disregard the fees.
POLICE INVESTIGATING AMISH COUNTRY KILLING FIND BROKEN KNIFE, UNIDENTIFIED HAIR IN PREGNANT WOMAN’S ‘SCALPING’
A gaggle of Amish arrive on the Crawford County Judicial Heart in Meadville, Pennsylvania, for the initial listening to for Shawn Christopher Cranston on Friday, March 15, 2024. Cranston is being held in reference to the homicide of Rebekah A. Byler and her unborn in her house in Spartansburg, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 26, 2024. (AP Photograph/Gene J. Puskar)
Then again, witnesses noticed Cranston’s crimson Jeep on the scene, and Byler’s supporters in a GoFundMe marketing campaign recommended she were killed in a case of unsuitable id over a grudge towards the former resident at her cope with.
Magisterial District Pass judgement on Amy Nichols discovered sufficient proof at Cranston’s initial listening to Friday to ship the case to the Crawford County Not unusual Pleas Courtroom, a tribulation court docket, for additional complaints.
MAN ARRESTED IN KILLING OF PREGNANT AMISH WOMAN IN PENNSYLVANIA
Shawn Cranston, left, from Pennsylvania, has been charged with killing 23-year-old Rebekah Byler, who used to be about six months pregnant on the time of her loss of life. (Crawford County Prison, left, TIM HAHN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS/USA TODAY NETWORK, proper)
Seek warrants display police recovered a damaged knife and two spent casings from other firearms within the sufferer’s house.
Byler were shot within the head, stabbed within the neck and suffered a “scalping sort wound,” in keeping with government.
Her two youngsters had been house on the time of the slayings, and a circle of relatives buddy discovered them enjoying with toys in some other room sooner than main them outdoor and calling 911, witnesses stated in court docket Friday.
A gaggle of Amish go away the Crawford County Judicial Heart in Meadville, Pennsylvania, following a initial listening to on Friday, March 15, 2024, for Shawn C. Cranston, 52, of Corry, Pennsylvania, who’s accused of killing Rebekah Byler and her unborn kid throughout the Byler house close to Spartansburg, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 26. (AP Photograph/Gene J. Puskar)
2 MINNESOTA AMISH CHILDREN DEAD; IDENTICAL TWINS CHARGED WITH SWAPPING PLACES, AND CASE GETS COMPLICATED
The buddy, Julie Warner, stated she may now not test for a pulse however that Byler’s frame used to be chilly by the point she arrived with the sufferer’s husband, Andy Byler.
Andy Byler testified that he left that morning to test on roofing jobs whilst his spouse used to be doing laundry and returned with Warner and located her at the ground.
“I didn’t in reality imagine it,” he testified. “I walked in and noticed her cap laying throughout the door.”
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Cranston, dressed in a bulletproof vest, didn’t discuss all through the listening to. He faces fees of prison murder, prison murder of an unborn kid, housebreaking and trespassing. He’s being held with out bail.
The Related Press contributed to this file.
