Details on the “Unrelated Burglary Charge” Against Lamour Branch That Isn’t So Unrelated

For weeks, the media has been reporting that the burglary charge Lamour Branch is facing for a September incident in Cressona is “unrelated” to the double homicide in New Philadelphia in early October.

That’s not entirely true as there are several connections between these incidents.

Branch is named throughout investigation details released by State Police in the New Philadelphia case. He hasn’t been named a suspect in that case, as has anyone else. However, one supposed witness to that incident told police during questioning that it was Branch who shot and killed 18-year-old Hunter Mock in a wooded area outside New Philadelphia back in October.

Angelito Caraballo, 16, was also found dead in that wooded area known as The Sanchez, but police have not revealed anything more about his death other than that he died of stab wounds at that scene.

Now, about that “unrelated burglary charge” … while it really isn’t directly connected to the New Philadelphia case, it’s not totally unrelated to it.

According to court documents obtained by The Canary, State Police filed for an arrest warrant on the burglary charge on Oct. 10. That was after the investigation into the New Philadelphia incident kept bringing up Branch’s name.

The “unrelated” Cressona incident was reported to police on the morning of Sept. 4.

According to the police affidavit seeking that arrest warrant for Branch, police say they got a call about the attempted burglary on Front St. in Cressona. 

Police interviewed Kyla Alton in Cressona. She said she wasn’t home at the time of the break-in at her home there. 

Alton is also named in the investigation details released to the public on the New Philadelphia homicides. She’s allegedly Branch’s ex-girlfriend and, based on information revealed to the police, could be the mother of his child.

Those investigation details also note that Branch called Alton from Tremont following the New Philadelphia incident, looking for a ride to a home his deceased mother owned outside Mountain Top, Luzerne County.

Alton reportedly obliged that request and took him there, where he’d later be arrested by US Marshals.

Back on Sept. 4, Alton told police she’d received a text message from Branch indicating she “would be surprised” when she got home.

After getting that text, Alton went to her home in Cressona and found her kitchen window was smashed. The back door and a window on that door were also damaged, police say.

Alton told police she believed Branch is the one who smashed the windows and damaged the door. 

Police confirmed this damage when Trooper Brett McMullin visited Alton’s home. McMullin said he saw a landscaping rock near the broken kitchen window and believed that was used to smash it. 

It’s unknown what was used to smash the window on the back door.

A neighbor’s surveillance camera captured a white SUV at the scent at the time of the alleged burglary.

At around 10 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 4, McMullin said he went to a Port Carbon address where it’s known Branch was staying. A white SUV similar to the one seen in the Cressona neighbor’s surveillance footage was parked outside.

Branch was interviewed outside that Port Carbon home by McMullin. McMullin says Branch was uncooperative. He said he wasn’t paying for any damages at the Cressona location “because of his tire.”

McMullin says he asked Branch about the tire but Branch declined to make a report about it. He persisted with telling the Trooper that he wasn’t paying for the damages at Alton’s home, which police estimate at about $750.

Branch then asked what would happen next. That’s when McMullin told him he’d be filing criminal charges against him for that incident.

After Branch was arrested outside Mountain Top, he was brought back to Schuylkill County to face the burglary charge and remanded to the local prison on $25,000 bail. Branch eventually got that reduced to $10,000 after spending about a month in Schuylkill County Prison.

Shortly thereafter, Branch posted bond and was released from prison. However, last week, he was sent back to prison and his bail revoked for violating several conditions of his parole, such as missing a Preliminary Hearing on the burglary charge in District Court.

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