Roxborough High School Shooting: Fifth suspect to stand trial for teen's 2022 murder
PHILADELPHIA - A teenage boy's life was cut short when gunfire erupted near a Philadelphia high school, and now a fifth suspect is set to stand trial for his murder.
Dayron Burney-Thorn was captured by U.S. Marshals in Germantown this past October after evading arrest for more than a year.
Roxborough High School Shooting: Fifth suspect captured in Philadelphia over a year after shooting
Dayron Burney-Thorn, the fifth suspect wanted in last year's deadly shooting, has been captured in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood.
He was wanted for a shooting that left 14-year-old Nicolas Elizalde dead and four other teens injured on the 300 block of Fairway Terrace on September 27, 2022.
Members of the Roxborough High School football team had just finished participating in a joint scrimmage that afternoon. Police say they were walking back into the school locker room when a group of five suspects got out of an SUV and opened fire.
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Yaaseen Bivins, 21, Zyhied Jones, 17, Saleem Miller, 16, and 15-year-old Troy Fletcher were all previously arrested and charged in connection to the deadly shooting.
Burney-Thorn was the first suspect to be publicly identified by law enforcement, who offered a $50,000 reward in the year-long search for the fugitive.
He appeared before a Philadelphia judge Monday morning on multiple charges, including murder, conspiracy, and four counts of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.
His preliminary hearing was filled with hours of evidence from key cell phone tower records, along with more than 4,500 data points from the car in question’s Infotainment system, the state’s attempt to link Burney-Thorn’s phone to the other four suspects and their general location on the day of the shooting.
Detectives from the Philadelphia Police Department were called to testify about their investigative findings, including a number of fingerprints that were recovered from the car believed to have been used during the ambush. Detectives determined eight of those fingerprints belonged to the defendant.
The state rested its case Monday afternoon, asserting that there was enough evidence against Burney-Thorn to go to trial, while the defense argued there was insufficient evidence and pushed for the dismissal of the charges.
The judge sided with the prosecution.
"The commonwealth agrees. We know there to be enough evidence at this time which is not beyond a reasonable doubt, but it’s just more likely than not," Assistant District Attorney, Ashley Toczylowski said. "This was an investigation put on by local and federal law enforcement that put cell phone data with vehicle information, paired it altogether with physical evidence and left a very clear picture of who was involved."
The defense attorney for Dayron Burney-Thorn disagreed with the judge’s decision, saying, "The case against Mr. Burney-Thorn is completely circumstantial. We didn’t hear anything about weapons recovered. Eyewitness statements. They tried to tie his cell phone data to pin him to a certain location, but that data only put them in a certain area. What you saw today was the government cherry-pick which towers fit with their story."
The preliminary hearing now moves to an arraignment next month.