‘There were people getting offed and murdered’
WASHINGTON, Pa. – A former co-defendant of two men charged in the 2003 murder of John Newman in California Borough is testifying against them.
Howard Irwin, of Crescent Heights, West Pike Run Township, is currently in jail serving 12-23 months after pleading guilty to hindering apprehension of defendants Michael Duncan and John Bronson.
Duncan, 35, of Amherst, Ohio, is charged with homicide and conspiracy, as is John Bronson, 55, of Monessen, who also faces solicitation charges.
Irwin, 41, had faced the same charges as Duncan, but accepted a plea deal Dec. 15, 2011 after Judge Janet Moschetta Bell rejected a motion to separate his case from the others. Irwin had been tied to the case by a meeting that allegedly occurred at his house in late 2002 in which others including Duncan and Bronson were discussing killing Newman for being a snitch.
Irwin said Duncan had been living at his house at the time. Irwin said he had told Duncan that he would be out for the night, but ended up returning home after the heat went out at his girlfriend’s apartment.
Irwin said Duncan had told him he was thinking of meeting with Michael Bowman about making some money by taking care of a snitch.
“I told him don’t even get involved with Bowman, he’s no good,” Irwin testified.
Irwin said that when he and his girlfriend arrived at his house and he saw Bowman and a man he later learned was Bronson at his house, he asked them to leave.
“I had no direct knowledge of a meeting. All I know is that Bowman never should have been in my house. I thought it was just for him to buy drugs. I didn’t know it was a meeting,” Irwin testified.
Irwin said that he had been staying at the home of a girlfriend when Newman was killed and didn’t see Duncan until a few days later, and then not again for two and a half years.
“I called him consistently to try to find out why he left and emptied the safe, just leaving the cell phone,” Bowman said.
Irwin said he tried to go through Duncan’s grandparents and some of his own relatives who lived in Ohio and knew Duncan. When he did finally make contact with Duncan, the Ohio man said he left because Brian Horner a drug associate from Blainesburg, was spreading word around town that Duncan had killed Newman. Irwin said Duncan then told him that Horner had taken him to Newman’s car, where the victim was sitting.
“And Mike said he whacked him. He said he (Newman) was a snitch,” Irwin testified.
Bronson’s defense attorney asked why he waited six years to share that information with police.
“There’s people dying and getting shot. I didn’t want to have anything to do with it,” Irwin testified.
Irwin said he finally came forward with the information when he was also arrested for the crime.
“As far as I’m concerned, I never should have been arrested. There’s nothing in discovery that connected me to this incident,” Irwin testified.
Cross examination continues this afternoon.