A juror in the trial of a convicted Beaver County man was allegedly neighbors with a slain teacher who had a well-publicized relationship with the defendant, his attorney said Tuesday.
Sheldon Jeter Jr., 23, of Aliquippa, was convicted last week of first-degree murder in the killing of 30-year-old Tyric Pugh, who lived with Mr. Jeter and his grandfather.
Michael Santicola, the attorney for Jeter, said one of the jurors in that trial was a neighbor of Rachael DelTondo, a cyberschool teacher who was shot and killed outside her parents’ Aliquippa home three years ago.
Although no one has been arrested in connection to DelTondo’s killing, Jeter has been investigated and was shown in leaked police documents to have had a relationship with the woman when he was 16 years old. Jeter’s lawyer has denied that his client had anything to do with her killing.
Mr. Santicola said he learned that the female juror was a neighbor of DelTondo’s when someone in the gallery recognized her during the reading the verdict and alerted his office to the connection.
Beaver County property records appear to confirm that the juror’s parents were living next to the DelTondo residence at the time of the teacher’s homicide.
Because of the publicity DelTondo’s killing has drawn, it raises concerns about what the neighbor knew about Jeter prior to trial, Mr. Santicola said.
“You have to ask yourself, is it a safe assumption to make that, if your next-door neighbor is murdered literally on almost your front lawn, and then the stories that came out nationally and locally about it included Sheldon Jeter all over it as a possible suspect among other suspects, how could you not follow that?” he asked.
Mr. Santicola said he doesn’t believe the juror lied during voir dire, when prospective jurors are examined by the attorneys prior to their selection, but she didn’t volunteer any information regarding if she was aware of who Jeter was. There were no questions about DelTondo’s killing since that is a separate, and still unsolved, case.
Messages left for Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier were not immediately returned Tuesday afternoon. Attempts to reach the juror also were unsuccessful.
Currently, Mr. Santicola said he hasn’t decided how his office plans to go forward with the situation, and he doesn’t want to file anything regarding the juror until his office has investigated the matter. Jeter is scheduled to be sentenced July 21.
Mick Stinelli: mstinelli@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1869 and on Twitter: @MickStinelli.
First Published: June 29, 2021, 6:47 p.m.
