District Magistrate David Plachko advanced the murder case against Lamour Branch to Schuylkill County Court this morning following an emotional Preliminary Hearing.
Branch appeared for the hearing held in Courtroom 4 at Schuylkill County Courthouse in his beige prison jumpsuit, handcuffed and shackled at the feet. He remained silent and mostly stared forward for the entirety of the 90-minute hearing.
Seated in the courtroom were about two dozen family and friends of the victims of Branch’s alleged crimes, Hunter Mock and Angelito Caraballo, who were killed on the night of Oct. 8 in a wooded area outside New Philadelphia known as The Sanchez.
Sherwood Testifies
During this morning’s hearing, Schuylkill County District Attorney Mike O’Pake presented two witnesses to prove he had enough evidence to hold his case against Branch over for trial in County court.
He first called Jahlique Sherwood.
Sherwood was one of the four people at the wooded area known as The Sanchez on the night of Oct. 8, 2023, when New Philadelphia residents Mock, 18, and Caraballo, 16, were killed.
Sherwood testified that he had no part in the killings of Mock and Caraballo. He said he went to The Sanchez, which he claimed he didn’t know by name – referring to it as “the lake” several times in his testimony and once as a “swimming place where people link up” – with Branch, Mock, and Caraballo that night. Sherwood said he was initially picked up by Branch and the two of them went to pick up Mock and Caraballo, before going to The Sanchez in Branch’s vehicle.
While at The Sanchez, Sherwood testified that at some point, Branch pulled a pistol from his waistband and pointed at the wate hole located in this wooded area. Then, he said, Branch pointed it toward Mock.
That’s when he said he ran.
“I ran,” Sherwood testified. “I did not want to get shot.”
He told O’Pake that he turned back once after he began running but didn’t see anything.
“I heard Angel yell but I don’t remember what he said,” Sherwood said. “I heard a couple of gunshots. That was it.”
Sherwood estimated that he heard about 8 or 9 shots as he was running away.
He also said he heard Branch calling for him, yelling “Face! Face!” which is Sherwood’s nickname. Once again, Sherwood told O’Pake that he didn’t stop when he heard that, testifying, “I didn’t want to get shot, sir.”
During a cross-examination by Public Defender Ashley Sabol, who represented Branch at Wednesday’s hearing, Sherwood said at some point he ran through water on his way eventually to a home where he knocked on the door and windows asking for help.
Sherwood said at no point did he swim on his escape run. Rather, he went through, at most, waist-high water.
During her cross-exam, Sabol attempted to punch holes in Sherwood’s testimony and it appears that Branch’s defense is going to lean heavily on the notion that Sherwood is not as innocent in this incident as he claims.
In fact, they seem to claim that Sherwood was the one who shot Mock and then told Branch to kill Caraballo.
Sabol asked Sherwood about the origins of the gun used to shoot Mock and if he was familiar with it.
He said he was familiar with the gun but that a lot of people in their circle were as well.
Sabol also asked if Sherwood had any text communications with Branch about shooting that gun prior to their arrival at The Sanchez that night.
Sherwood denied texting Branch about that.
Sabol also questioned why Sherwood was taken to the hospital after police arrived at the home to which he fled that night.
Sherwood denied being involved in any “tussle” with Caraballo or Branch after Mock had been shot.
He said that during his run from the scene, he sustained some injuries, like scrapes and bruises and an injury to his ankle.
“I had injuries from running,” he testified. “My whole side was scraped up. I fell downhill running.”
Police Testimony, Emotional Evidence
State Police Det. Nicholas Reese was also called as a witness during Wednesday’s hearing. He’s the lead police investigator on this case.
O’Pake exhaustively reviewed the course of the Reese and State Police’s investigation into the double homicide.
Reese detailed interviews conducted with witnesses and associates of Branch as well as digital forensic data recovered from everyone’s phones prior to and after the killings.
During Reese and Sherwood’s testimony, prosecutors displayed several aerial photos of the crime scene on which the bodies of Mock and Caraballo were visible to those attending the hearing.
When the photos were projected onto a screen in the courtroom, audible sobbing could be heard from family and friends of the deceased as they saw them.
Reese testified, while using a laser pointer to pinpoint locations at the crime scene, the state of the deceased when he arrived at The Sanchez on the morning of Oct. 10, after their bodies had been discovered earlier that morning.
He said both Mock and Caraballo were face-up when he arrived. Reese said he observed a single small hole in Mock’s head and that Caraballo was covered in dried blood on his neck, sweatshirt, and on his hands.
While Reese was pointing at the screen with the projected photos on them, Branch sat silently and stared at the images.
O’Pake prepared the families of Mock and Caraballo for the presentation of the photographs shown today before the hearing.
Tanya Evans, Caraballo’s mother, said it was emotional.
“It was very hard,” Evans said. “They actually showed it to us before … We cried then and then some more.”
Later, Reese testified that in his interviews with Branch, the defendant changed his story several times about where he was on the night of Oct. 8. During each line of questioning, he said, Branch went from not going into the wooded area and waiting for the other three to return to going into the woods a bit and then finally, making his way to water hole where he witnessed parts of the incident, Reese said.
During a cross-exam by Public Defender Andrea Thompson, Reese was questioned about the amount of and caliber of shell casings police found at The Sanchez. He said all but one of the approximately 26 casings found were of the caliber that matched the pistol barrel police allegedly recovered from the Wright Township, Luzerne County, home where Branch fled following the incident.
Thompson also asked if police conducted a forensic search on all phones of the people at The Sanchez that night as well as their known associates. Reese said he did but that some of the phones were older so that limited the amount of state that could be recovered from them.
He also said that, for instance, Sherwood’s phone was not in service, so tracking information wasn’t available for times he wasn’t in a WiFi coverage area.
Later, Thompson asked Reese if police ever did a forensic search of Sherwood’s brother’s phone to track his activity after the night at The Sanchez, suggesting that Sherwood was using that phone to perhaps get possible updates on the incident from local sources.
Reese said police did not search Sherwood’s brother’s phone.
Thompson also questioned Reese on whether Sherwood’s clothing and hands were tested for gunshot residue, especially after his clothes were collected for evidence by police, and if DNA swabs were taken of material under his fingernails while he was at the hospital receiving treatment for injuries.
Reese said no DNA swabs were collected
Thompson suggested police may have ignored Sherwood as a possible suspect once they focused on Branch.
Reese said, “I disagree.”
Headed for County Court
In his ruling Wednesday, Plachko said the prosecution presented enough evidence to prove that Mock and Caraballo were intentionally killed and that Branch was at the scene of the crime.
Despite, what he described as Sherwood’s testimony being “skillfully attacked” by the defense, he ordered charges against Branch be held for Schuylkill County court.
Branch, 19, is being charged with two counts of first and third-degree murder of Hunter Mock, 18, and Angelito Caraballo, 16, both of New Philadelphia, back on Oct. 8, 2024 in a wooded area outside the borough known as The Sanchez.
When Branch appeared in Schuylkill County court earlier this year to face trial on a burglary charge over a September 2023 incident in Cressona, the most serious charge against him was reduced to a summary offense and he was essentially set to be released from Schuylkill County Prison.
However, as he left court that day, State Police were outside waiting for him and charged him with the murders of Mock and Caraballo.
Following today’s hearing, Kate Mock, Hunter’s mother, said she hopes there’s enough evidence in the case to make Branch pay for what he’s alleged to have done.
“There’s never going to be a payment that’s going to fix any of it,” Mock said.
PHOTO CAPTION: Schuylkill County Sheriff Joe Groody leads Lamour Branch from the Courthouse following his Preliminary Hearing on Wednesday morning. (Coal Region Canary photo)
FULL COVERAGE
Check out our full coverage of the 2023 New Philadelphia murders. Here is a collection of our most recent articles on this topic:
- “We Had To Get It Right” – State Police, DA Discuss Length Of New Philadelphia Murder Investigation
- After The New Philadelphia Murders, Lamour Branch Allegedly Didn’t Stop Talking About It
- Branch Charged With Both Murders In New Philadelphia Homicides Case
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