Bail Revoked for Man Named in New Philadelphia Homicide Investigation

Lamour Branch was sent back to Schuylkill County Prison on Friday after a judge determined he violated the conditions of his parole.

President Judge Jacqueline Russell signed an order today revoking the bail for Branch, 19, after it was successfully argued that he violated several conditions of his parole.

Branch was out on bail since Nov. 20, after Judge D. Michael Stine reduced his bail on a burglary charge that had him in prison in the first place from $25,000 to $10,000 earlier that month.

Since his release last month, however, the court found that Branch had done little to not violate the conditions of that release.

It was determined on Friday that Branch:

• Failed to report to Schuylkill County Adult Probation Office at 9 a.m. each Monday, in fact, he didn’t appear at all;
• Failed to live at the Port Carbon address where Stine said he needed to be;
• Failed to appear for a Preliminary Hearing earlier this week on this burglary charge.

Branch said today he’d been living in Berks County until earlier this week, when he stayed in Port Carbon, and then relocated to an address in Schuylkill Haven.

A court document obtained by The Canary on Friday indicates Branch testified that he changed his residence to a Schuylkill Haven address. However, he didn’t receive the court’s permission to do that, which was a condition of his bail.

The court determined that Branch’s excuses that he thought the Preliminary Hearing this week was on a different day and that he didn’t understand the terms of his bail weren’t credible.

“It is noted that Defendant had not intended to appear at the revocation hearing this day, but was brought to the hearing by Adult Probation Office personnel,” the court order reads.

Connection to New Philadelphia Homicides Case

Branch is named by an alleged witness, Jahlique Sherwood, 19, to a double homicide in New Philadelphia in October, as the one who shot and killed 18-year-old Hunter Mock.

Sixteen-year-old Angelito Caraballo was also killed but no witness information included in public documents on the police investigation into that double homicide reveal who may have been his killer.

Branch nor Sherwood have been named as suspects in that case and no charges have yet to be filed in the New Philadelphia murders case.

The burglary charge that has Branch back in prison stems from an alleged incident back in September in Cressona.

After Branch’s name came up as part of the investigation into the New Philadelphia homicides, police acted on an arrest warrant to apprehend Branch. He was found at a property owned by his deceased mother outside Mountain Top, Luzerne County.

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