SCOTT TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The mother of a man killed in a shooting in Scott Township is speaking out after his manager, who was convicted of the crime, was just granted a new trial.
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Dorian Carver was shot and killed at a Taco Bell on Cochran Road in Scott Township in 2022. In February, his manager, Zairye Simmons, was found guilty of that murder and sentenced to life in prison.
“I feel like we have a gaping wound that had a little bandaid put on it from knowing that he was going to go to jail for the rest of his life. And they just came and ripped the bandaid off of the gaping wound,” Carmella Wilson, Carver’s mother, told Channel 11.
Carver and Simmons worked at the Taco Bell in Scott Township, and got into an argument over a write up. Then, police say Simmons killed Carver at a nearby business.
“When we got the verdict, it was like everything was just lifted up off of us. Like God answered our prayers, and we could all just start to mourn Dorian,” she said.
That feeling of relief is now gone, after Judge Bruce Beemer vacated Simmons’s conviction and granted him a new trial.
“I don’t want to see pictures of my son lying in blood again. I don’t ever want to see that again. I thought, ‘OK, Carmella, you got through it’… Now I have to do it all over again,” she added.
According to court documents, the defense filed a motion for a new trial because of “prosecutorial misconduct” by Chief Trial Deputy Jarrod Caruso.
The defense claims Caruso filed two charges against Simmons — carrying a firearm without a license and receiving stolen property —, without ever presenting evidence to prove it.
This, the defense argued, tainted the jury and may have played a role in their decision to find Simmons guilty of murder.
Wilson is now beyond frustrated with the prosecutor who tried her son’s case, and fears a new trial could mean a new outcome for Simmons.
“You need to find another profession… I don’t know what God has in store for you, but working in that DA’s office ain’t it. And as long as I’m breathing air, I’m going to do everything I can do to get you out of there,” she said, referring to Caruso.
She also told Channel 11 that she won’t settle for a plea deal.
“I prefer to go to trial and let 12 people look at the evidence and decide, and put that boy in jail for the rest of his life like he belongs,” she said.
A spokesperson with the DA’s office said that they did a thorough review of the evidence, and they agreed that due to an “evidentiary error on an issue collateral to the homicide, in the interest of justice, a new trial was appropriate.”
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