Suspect ordered to stand trial in fatal Ellsworth shooting
Carnegie man killed while visiting ex-girlfriend’s home
Mike Jones/Observer-Reporter
The suspect accused of sneaking into an Ellsworth house and shooting a man in the face will stand trial on all charges after multiple witnesses identified him as the gunman during his preliminary hearing Monday morning.
Christopher Tarkelo Harper is charged with homicide and other felony counts in connection with the Aug. 17 shooting at 24 Walnut St. that killed 21-year-old Elijah Johnson.
Samiya Kastner testified she was lying on her bed in her second-floor bedroom with Johnson and her younger brother when she heard a gunshot and turned over to see Johnson bleeding.
“I heard a big boom and my ears started ringing,” she testified.
Johnson, who suffered a gunshot wound to the face, died at the scene.
Kastner said she and Johnson had dated in the past, but they hadn’t been together for a few weeks. She apparently had also been in a relationship with Harper, although investigators have not released a motive for the shooting.
Her 11-year-old sister testified that Harper came into the house after arriving on a dirt bike and asked where Kastner was, and she told him upstairs. He then creeped up the stairs and pulled a gun out of his backpack, peered through a curtain hung in the bedroom’s doorframe and fired once, the girl said.
“I saw him pull a gun out of his bookbag,” she said. “I thought it was fake. And then I heard a loud bang.”
A surveillance video from a neighboring home on Walnut Street showed a man arriving on a dirtbike and walking to the residence where the shooting happened. Another video showed the dirtbike rider leaving the scene.
Harper was arrested the following day in New Castle, and was returned to Washington, where he spoke to state police Trooper Terrance Crowley. Crowley testified that Harper allegedly told him that when he walked into the bedroom, the victim threatened him before going for a gun that was supposedly sitting on the edge of the bed.
Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh said the case appeared to be open and shut since there are multiple witnesses who placed Harper in the home or firing the fatal shot.
“I think it’s straight forward,” Walsh said. “Everyone identified the defendant. … He pulled a gun out and Elijah Johnson is dead.”
After listening to testimony for about 30 minutes during the preliminary hearing at Washington County Central Court in the courthouse, District Judge Joshua Kanalis ordered Harper to stand trial on all charges. Harper, 18, of Ellsworth, is charged with felony counts of homicide, burglary, firearms not to be carried without a license and two misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment.
Harper, who was shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit during the hearing, was escorted by sheriff’s deputies back to the Washington County jail, where he is being held without bond while he awaits trial.