JOHNSTOWN —
Although prosecutors were seeking first-degree murder convictions, a Cambria County jury found the shooter in a Johnstown homicide guilty of third degree murder and his accomplice guilty of voluntary manslaughter Monday night.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for three hours before convicting 31-year-old Marquis “G” Neal, the triggerman, and his cousin, 29-year-old Anthony Harvey, the accomplice who was charged with driving Neal to and from the Oakhurst Homes where the murder took place.
They were charged in the slaying of 21-year-old J-Quan “Scar” Lewis of New York City in a grassy area off Grandinetti in the Oakhurst Homes housing project on Oct. 1, 2011, in Johnstown.
Lewis, a New York resident who had been staying in Johnstown several months, was shot three times, including a final shot to the head in what one witness described as an execution style shooting.
The murder took place about 14 hours after Lewis had been involved in a a fight with Harvey outside Edder’s Den, a bar in the Oakhurst neighborhood.
Witnesses testified during the trial that Lewis emerged the winner in the fight, with Harvey being helped into and driven away in a mini-van by Neal. It never came out what the original verbal confrontation was about between the two men inside the bar.
The victim’s mother, Evelyn Lewis of Queens, N.Y., who had been here for the trial, reacted angrily about the verdict while praising prosecutors for their work on the case.
“”It’s not good enough for me. I’m not pleased. These people (defendants) came after my son like an animal. He didn’t do nothing. He bumped Mr. Neal,” the mother said.
Recalling that her son had been killed only one day after his birthday, the mother said, “My son was 21 years old. I’m 50 years old, and I’m sentenced to life (without him). They killed my son, and that’s not right. Murder-three. Are you kidding me?”
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