Turtle Creek man headed to trial in deadly 2021 shootings on Parkway East, Route 28

A Turtle Creek man accused of gunning down two people on different highways last year will head to trial, a district judge ruled.

District Judge Kevin Cooper Jr. dismissed six charges against Howard Milligan, but the most serious will proceed to trial, including two counts of homicide.

Over one deadly night, Milligan, 26, is charged in connection with the May 22 shooting deaths of Shane Edwards, 22, on Route 28 near Sharpsburg, and Jasmine “Lucy” Guest, 24, on the Parkway East a few hours later.

The preliminary hearing for Milligan lasted nearly three hours Wednesday, with a bulk of the testimony relating to the death of Guest and the events leading up to it.

Related:

• 2 charged in homicides on Parkway East, Route 28 last year
• Woman riding on the Parkway East fatally shot by gunman in another car

Deputy District Attorney Kevin Chernosky showed several video clips from cameras along East Carson Street, where Guest met up with a friend, Shafone Knox, to get food from Cambod-Ican Kitchen near 17^th Street.

The footage shows Knox and Guest leaving the area in his black GMC, followed quickly by a white SUV that had been parked nearby on East Carson. Various cameras in the area show the white SUV following the GMC, including on the Parkway East heading into the Squirrel Hill tunnel outbound.

Knox testified that he was driving around 120 mph in an attempt to get away from the white car following him, though he said it was keeping pace.

A few minutes past the tunnels, Knox testified, he heard four gunshots and saw Guest had been hit. He returned fire with his own gun and drove Guest to UPMC East hospital in Monroeville.

She was pronounced dead a short time later.

“She took her last breath in my car,” Knox said. “I heard it.”

Police linked the license plate of the white SUV to a rental car that had been rented by someone close to Milligan.

Footage from outside Zone 28, a bowling alley and entertainment venue in Harmar, also linked Milligan to Edwards’ killing as well, prosecutors said. Both were seen at the venue, and footage shows a white SUV leaving immediately following Edwards’ vehicle.

Milligan’s attorney, Lisle Weaver, argued that a majority of the evidence against his client was circumstantial.

Milligan’s co-defendant, Leroy Irvin Jr., who was charged in late January in concert with Milligan, has not been arraigned, court records show. His name did not come up during Wednesday’s preliminary hearing. Court records show his case is listed as inactive.

Court records also show that Irvin, 35, has a federal drug case pending against him. A status hearing in the case is scheduled for May.

In the initial criminal complaint filed against the men in the double homicide, police said Irvin called Milligan “crazy” and “nuts.”