Havertown teen charged in shooting acted in self-defense during botched drug deal, lawyer says

The Havertown teen accused of shooting and critically wounding a high school classmate during a botched drug deal in February fired the shot under duress and in self-defense, his attorney said Thursday.

A. Charles Peruto Jr. said James McCauley was the victim of a robbery by three teens he had arranged to sell two ounces of marijuana to in a quiet part of Haverford Township.

“The people that visited with my client that evening — and there’s no question my client was selling marijuana, but they came there to rob him, because a marijuana seller is an easy target,” Peruto said after a preliminary hearing.

He said the three teens who met McCauley — including the victim, Marquis Mays — are part of a gang operating at Haverford High School as the “Finesse Club,” and had committed similar robberies throughout the last year.

Haverford Township School District superintendent Maureen Reusche called Peruto’s allegations of gang activity “absolutely baseless,” and township Police Chief John Viola said he had never heard of such a gang until its mention at Thursday’s proceedings.

Meanwhile, District Judge Robert R. Burke sent McCauley’s case to Delaware County Court, where he will be arraigned next month on charges of attempted homicide, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault and related offenses for shooting Mays, 18, once in the face.

Burke kept McCauley’s bail at $1 million cash despite Peruto’s request that it be reduced.

In a tearful statement before Burke, McCauley, 17, implored the judge to give him “a second chance,” and said he was not “physically or mentally prepared” to be in the county jail, where, as a juvenile inmate, he spends 23 hours a day in his cell.

“If I had the power to go back in time, I would make sure that man wouldn’t suffer,” McCauley said.

Assistant District Attorney Gina Gorbey countered that the “focus should be on the victim,” and said the severity of the charges McCauley faces should preclude him from being “out on the street.”

Investigators say McCauley brought a stolen .40-caliber gun to Rose Tree Lane near Glen Gary Drive on Feb. 14 in a prearranged marijuana sale. There, Mays and another teen crammed into the backseat of a Lincoln sedan registered to McCauley’s mother.

Jonathan Turner, 33, testified Thursday that he was out for a ride with his 14-year-old cousin, who was in the front passenger seat, across from McCauley. Turner said he didn’t realize he was a bystander in a drug deal until the teens flanking him in the backseat started discussing money and asked “if [McCauley] had the stuff.”

McCauley and the teens began “haggling” over the marijuana, Turner said. McCauley wanted $365, but the buyers tried to lower it to $350. Then, inexplicably, the two offered to give McCauley $375.

After the transaction ended, Mays and the other teen tried to open their doors but couldn’t because the child-safety locks were on. As McCauley and Turner’s cousin got out of the car to open the door for them, they began to attack Turner, hitting him in the face and neck, he said.

“All I could do was cower up into a ball," Turner said, adding that he had no idea what prompted the attack.

In a statement to police, the teen who was sitting next to Turner in the backseat said Turner “became touchy” with Mays, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case. An argument followed, and the teen told detectives he punched Turner in the face as the group got out of the car.

After the beating stopped, Turner saw that his cousin had gotten out of the car to chase one of the teens. He went to follow his cousin and heard “a noise” as his back was to the car.

When Turner and his cousin returned to the vehicle to retrieve their cell phones, McCauley sped off, admitting that he “shot that guy,” Turner said. Police later found Mays lying on Rose Tree Lane, bleeding from a wound under his right eye.

Mays was taken to Lankenau Hospital, but was later transferred to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital because of the severity of his wounds. He remains in the hospital, detectives said Thursday.

A bullet removed from Mays’ neck matched a .40-caliber handgun that detectives found in a shed behind McCauley’s home. A casing from the gun also was found inside his mother’s sedan.

But Peruto, referring to Turner’s testimony, said the prosecution’s case was “full of holes."

“Where’s the evidence that my client was the one that brought the gun, where’s the evidence that he intended to kill anyone?” Peruto said. “The evidence is more likely and more logical that he was defending himself, because the person who testified that he was in the backseat had just got beaten.”