Defense attorneys consent to gag order proposed by Zappala following video briefing

An Allegheny County judge on Tuesday granted a request for a gag order by District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. stemming from a video he made in which he commented on pending cases.

The gag order covers a homicide case from August 2022, as well as the attempted homicide of five people at a Brighton Heights funeral in October.

None of six defense attorneys involved in the cases objected to the request seeking to prohibit comment from both the prosecutor’s office and the defense.

In addition to the gag order, Common Pleas Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski also gave three of the defense attorneys permission to file motions in the case under seal.

Prior to the signing of the gag order, defense attorney Casey White, who represents Heze’kiah Nixon, said he would potentially seek a motion seeking removal of the DA’s office from prosecuting his client’s case.

In court on Tuesday, no one specified what the sealed motions are seeking.

On Aug. 16, Zappala posted a video — what he characterized as a briefing — to YouTube. The 13-minute video, featuring multiple camera angles and pictures of evidence and maps, summarized a case that had already gone to trial in June.

That case, in which 18-month-old De’Avry Thomas was killed in a drive-by shooting in Downtown, resulted in the first-degree murder conviction of two men, Markez Anger and Londell Falconer. They were scheduled to be sentenced to mandatory life in prison on Tuesday, but that hearing has been postponed to Sept. 13.

In the video, which received criticism for possible ethical violations, Zappala said that the two intended targets of the shooting, Nixon and Tylajae Allen, are “criminals.”

They both face homicide charges stemming from a shooting that occurred in the North Side’s California-Kirkbride neighborhood on Aug. 7, 2022, but have not been convicted.

Nixon’s defense attorney, Casey White, said at the time that Zappala’s comments were “false, inaccurate and concerning.”

A week later, Zappala’s chief trial deputy district attorney, William Petulla, filed a motion seeking a gag order in the case. In it, he said the office was removing the original video “in the interest of justice.”

The video has since been taken down.

Without a gag order, Petulla wrote that it would be possible that White would continue to talk about Zappala’s video “and that such continued statements may tend to prejudice the trial process related to this matter.”

Although White expressed frustration with the gag order during a motions hearing on Aug. 24, he did not contest it on Tuesday.

The defense attorneys have 30 days to file briefs on their motion, and the prosecution has 30 days to respond.