Lamour Branch admits he shot and killed New Philadelphia teenager Hunter Mock on the night of Oct. 8, 2023, in a wooded area near the borough.
Branch appeared in Courtroom 1 at Schuylkill County Courthouse on Thursday morning and entered guilty pleas on charges of third-degree murder, possessing an instrument of crime, and concealing evidence. He also pleaded no contest to a charge of aggravated assault against 16-year-old Angelito Caraballo, who was also found dead at the same scene as Mock.
President Judge Jacqueline Russell then sentenced Branch to 28-56 years in state prison immediately following his plea. The plea and sentence were agreed upon by the prosecution, defense, State Police, and family of the victims in the case. Branch’s plea comes about 24 hours before jury selection was to begin in this case. A jury trial was scheduled to commence on Monday if a panel of 12 Schuylkill County residents was able to be selected on Friday.
“I aimed the gun at Hunter and caused his death. I aimed the gun, pulled the trigger, and shot him,” Branch, who is now 21 years old, told Russell, who ordered him to explain what he did that night in the wooded area known as The Sanchez.
He continued that there was a verbal altercation between he and Mock prior to him shooting him.
“I shot him because I was angry,” Branch said, moments after intially saying that he believed Mock posed a threat to him that night, which he then took back.
Branch’s guilty plea means it’s still not known who killed Caraballo that night. Schuylkill County District Attorney Mike O’Pake tells Coal Region Canary that the investigation into this incident remains open.
During Thursday’s plea hearing, Russell urged Branch to consider the “fabulous” deal and “awfully lenient sentence” he was getting in exchange for his admission of guilt and that at some point, he comes forward with the whole story about what happened that night in 2023.
Russell told Branch that if he only serves the minimum 28 years of his sentence, he’ll still have a life to live after he’s released from prison. She said that Mock and Caraballo don’t have that luxury and that while he’s incarcerated, “perhaps you’ll find it in your heart to explain what happened.” The judge reminded Branch that he can’t be charged with first-degree murder by coming forward with the truth now.
Branch was facing two counts of first- and third-degree murder as he prepared to go to trial. The host of other charges he was facing in this case were “nolle prossed” as part of the plea deal, meaning the prosecution was voluntarily choosing to stop pursuing convictions on them.
During Thursday’s hearing, Kate Mock, Hunter’s mother, told Branch that him taking her son’s life caused “the total destruction of my life.
“I didn’t just lose a child. I lost my health, my family, my livelihood, and my very sense of self,” she said. “The ripples of this crime have reached every corner of my life. Because of the trauma and my declining health, I have lost my family. My younger son has moved out of state to be adopted by others. I have lost my identity as a mother and I have lost the person I used to be. I am a ghost of the woman I once was.”
Outside the Courthouse, Mock told The Canary that she’s still of the belief that Branch was the “patsy” in the murder of her son.
“He did things that he was told because he had no other community around him. He had no family or support. Honestly, I think Lamour was acting out because he wanted to be accepted,” she said.
Mock said Branch “didn’t have the guts to stay after the gun didn’t kill Angel. I think that’s when he took off.”
Tanya Evans, Caraballo’s mother, is still left not knowing the truth about Angelito’s murder. She hopes Branch “finds it in his heart to actually say what actually happened and we get the answers that we’ve all been waiting for and looking for.
Evans had a statement read during Thursday’s hearing by her sister, Toni Lee Zawaski. Several other family members entered victim impact statements, including Caraballo’s younger brother who addressed Branch bluntly.
“You’re a piece of sh** and you don’t deserve to live,” he said.
Witness Trouble
O’Pake admitted to Russell during Thursday’s hearing that the prosecution was willing to work on a plea deal with Branch due to issues with their primary witness, Jahlique Sherwood, the fourth person at The Sanchez on the night in question.
Sherwood has been arrested three times since the incident in 2023, most recently getting picked up in Saint Clair on an outstanding warrant. At the time of his arrest, police say he was in possession of a stolen gun.
“The testimony of Sherwood was weakened significantly because of the three sets of charges that the jury would have heard about,” O’Pake said.
Those allegations against him could have really painted him as a less than credible witness to jurors, O’Pake told Russell, who inquired about the basis for the plea deal she found so favorable to Branch.
The DA told The Canary after today’s hearing that he’s confident the prosecution had enough evidence, regardless of the potential trouble with Sherwood, to secure a third-degree murder conviction against Branch for Mock’s death but not for Caraballo. O’Pake said that’s due to the overall evidence and facts in the case.
“This happens in the middle of the woods of New Philadelphia. It doesn’t happen on the street corner in New Philadelphia, where we would have six, seven, eight cameras to tell us what happened,” he said. “There were four people that walked into the woods. The two people who are dead are not going to tell us what happened.”
O’Pake said that as the case moved closer to trial, there was a “significant amount of inconsistencies in Mr. Sherwood’s testimony.
“I had very little faith that Mr. Sherwood would be a Commonwealth witness that the jury would find credible,” he added.
While the DA did say that the prosecution, police, and families were satisfied with the terms of the plea deal offered to Branch, he added that no one, other than the families, would have preferred a first-degree murder conviction in this case more than he and Trooper Nicholas Reese, the lead State Police investigator.
“As we got closer to trial and we talked to Mr. Sherwood more, it became clear that was not going to happen,” O’Pake said.
“Keyboard Warriors and the Plea Deal”
O’Pake also called out potential “keyboard warriors” who might be skeptical of the plea deal reached with Branch, which he emphasized was agreed upon by the families of Mock and Caraballo.
Kate Mock and Evans both confirmed to The Canary that they were satisfied with the terms and would have preferred not to have the case go to trial.
The District Attorney asked the potential online critics to “take into consideration when they’re making their comments that they don’t know as much as they think they know” regarding the case. He said further criticism would only hlpe “perpetuate the pain for these families.”
The Oct. 8 Killings at “The Sanchez”
The guilty plea on Thrusday was the latest stage in a case that began on the night of Oct. 8, 2023, when Mock, 18, and Caraballo, 16, were killed in a wooded area outside New Philadelphia known as “The Sanchez.”
According to police records and court testimony prior to today, Branch, Mock, Caraballo, and Sherwood, went into the woods that night to drink, smoke marijuana, and shoot a gun.
Sherwood, who testified at Branch’s July 2024 preliminary hearing, told the court that at some point during the evening, Branch pulled a pistol equipped with a laser sight from his waistband and pointed it at Mock. Sherwood testified that he immediately ran from the scene out of fear for his life, hearing Caraballo yell “STOP!” followed by multiple gunshots.
The bodies of Mock and Caraballo were discovered at the bottom of an embankment at The Sanchez early on the morning of Oct. 10. The Schuylkill County Deputy Coroner determined Mock died from a gunshot wound to the head, while Caraballo died from several puncture wounds and lacerations.
Conflicting Accounts and Prison Admissions
While Sherwood testified that he fled before seeing the actual killings, Branch’s defense team previously attempted to shift the blame to Sherwood. During the preliminary hearing, Public Defender Ashley Sabol questioned Sherwood’s account, suggesting Sherwood shot Mock and instructed Branch to kill Caraballo, allegations Sherwood denied on the stand.
However, police affidavits detailed a series of jailhouse phone calls, texts, and conversations that investigators say incriminated Branch.
According to court documents, Branch allegedly told a Schuylkill County Prison cellmate that he shot Mock in the head, but claimed it was Sherwood who stabbed Caraballo to death because Caraballo was a witness to the shooting.
Branch also reportedly told the cellmate his original intent that night was to kill another associate, Hailey Califf, whom he believed was trying to kill him, adding that Mock was also a potential target. Califf was not present at The Sanchez that night.
In a separate October 2023 phone call recorded at the prison, Branch expressed confidence he would not be charged with the murders, allegedly stating, “They ain’t got sh. They tried to tell me I had a knife. I didn’t have no fin’ knife. I don’t know what the f they talking about, and they couldn’t find that neither. That’s really all they had to hold me, the rest is hearsay.”
The Courthouse Arrest
Branch was originally taken into custody in Luzerne County on Oct. 10, 2023, just hours after the victims’ bodies were found. However, that arrest was for an unrelated September 2023 burglary and trespassing incident in Cressona involving his ex-girlfriend.
Branch remained jailed on those unrelated charges for eight months while State Police built the double homicide case.
The timeline culminated in a dramatic scene at the Schuylkill County Courthouse on June 5, 2024. After a judge reduced the Cressona burglary charges to a summary offense of criminal mischief, Branch was ordered released from prison. Believing he was soon to be a free man, Branch walked out of the courtroom and was immediately intercepted by waiting State Police troopers, who formally charged him with the murders of Mock and Caraballo.
At his July 2024 preliminary hearing, District Magistrate David Plachko ruled prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence to hold the charges for county court. Prior to his plea, Branch had been facing two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of third-degree murder, and multiple felony counts of aggravated assault.
EXCLUSIVE: Coal Region Canary was the only media outlet present at Thursday’s plea hearing.
For full coverage of this case, follow this link: NEW PHILADELPHIA MURDERS
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