Jury deliberating in Valentine's Day murders

A JURY YESTERDAY deliberated for about three hours without reaching a verdict in the double-murder trial of Shaun Warrick, accused of shooting to death his girlfriend and her cousin on Valentine's Day 2011.

Warrick, 32, of Logan, is accused of killing his girlfriend, Tiffany Barnhill, 19, and her cousin, Marcedes Ivery, 21, after busting into Ivery's house on Rutland Street near Cheltenham Avenue, in Frankford.

If the jury of six men and six women convict Warrick of first-degree murder, it will then have to decide whether to sentence him to life in prison or to death.

Jurors yesterday sent out two notes to Common Pleas Judge Glenn Bronson during deliberations. They again wanted to see photos of the two victims after they were shot.

They also asked whether the trigger of a semiautomatic gun needs to be pulled each time to shoot it, or if the gun would just keep firing once the trigger was pulled. The judge told them he could not answer factual questions for them, but they instead would have to rely on a ballistician's testimony.

In his closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Lipscomb said that shortly before 3:45 p.m. Valentine's Day, Warrick "kicked in the door" of Ivery's house. "He was not there to drop off balloons or candy."

Warrick ran up to the second floor and began firing, shooting Ivery multiple times in one bedroom, then shooting Barnhill multiple times in another bedroom, killing both, the prosecutor said.

Lipscomb said Barnhill and Warrick had a "tempestuous relationship." Warrick was angry at Barnhill, but he was also angry at Ivery because she "was in the middle of this . . . telling the defendant, 'She [Barnhill] doesn't want to be with you,' " the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor contended that while no one saw the shooting, witnesses and phone records point to Warrick as the killer.

Defense attorney Jack McMahon, in his closing argument, attacked the credibility of witnesses, tried to poke holes in the prosecution's case and told jurors to use their common sense.

He told jurors their job is to analyze whether the prosecution has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and not just to the level of "maybe" or "probably."

Three witnesses identified Warrick as being at the Rutland Street house that afternoon. Two - Alicia Watkins, 31, and her best friend, Octavia Dugger, 25, both of Logan - had gone with Warrick in his car to the Rutland Street house that day.

Watkins, who was Warrick's friend, had testified that Warrick wanted her to beat up another woman - whom she assumed was his new girlfriend.

Watkins testified that when they got to the house, Warrick kicked in the door, then went in. She said she and Dugger waited outside, then heard gunshots. She said she didn't know what happened inside. She and Dugger ran back to the car, and Warrick ran back, too, she said.

Another witness, Christal Smith, testified that she saw two women and one man going to the Rutland Street house. Smith, who was across the street, said she saw the man kick in the door, then heard gunshots. She identified Warrick as the man she saw.

McMahon contended Smith's identification of Warrick, a stranger to her, was not reliable.

He also told jurors there was no fingerprint evidence and no gun found that ties his client to the crime. Even the witnesses who testified that Warrick was at the house - Watkins, Dugger and Smith - did not see Warrick with a gun, McMahon said.

McMahon also attacked the prosecution's theory that Warrick intended to shoot and kill the two women. If that were the case, why would he have driven to the house with Watkins and Dugger? McMahon asked. That doesn't make sense, he said.

McMahon also contended that another man could have been in the Rutland Street house at the time of the shooting, and that it was the other man who murdered the two women.

Lipscomb, though, told jurors that a specific intent to kill can be formed in an instant. He contended that on the drive to Rutland Street - during which Warrick was repeatedly on the phone with Ivery, and arguing for her to put Barnhill on the phone - or while walking to the house from his car, Warrick switched to "Plan B."

Instead of having Watkins and Dugger fight the other two women, Warrick decided to kill them, Lipscomb said.

Lipscomb also told jurors that, according to Watkins' testimony, when she saw him the day after the murders, Warrick didn't express horror that the two women were killed. Instead, he allegedly told Watkins, "I f---ed up."