Trial in killing of Swissvale mom, daughter focuses on voice ID of accused shooter

The day after Megan Campbell and her 7-year-old daughter, Lyla, were shot to death in their Swissvale apartment last year, homicide Detective Nicole Grimm visited the victims’ family.

Grimm explained to Sean Campbell and his mother, Joan, that she was going to play a recording of a 911 call that might have been related to the homicides, for which Kareef Easington is on trial.

The Allegheny County Police homicide detective wanted to know if the Campbells could identify the caller.

Grimm told a jury Wednesday that she was careful to separate them so their opinions did not influence each other.

First she played the call for Joan, Megan Campbell’s mother. The woman immediately responded, “That’s him. That’s Kareef.”

“There was zero hesitation,” Grimm testified.

A short time later, Shawn Campbell also identified the voice on the recording as Kareef Easington’s.

“He also did not give any pause,” Grimm said.

But on cross-examination, the detective admitted that just moments before playing the 911 call, she used Easington’s name.

“How often did you speak to Kareef?” Grimm asked Shawn Campbell’s wife, questioning whether she would be able to recognize his voice.

Defense attorney Keith Emerick played Grimm’s body-worn camera footage showing the interaction.

During his opening statement Tuesday, Emerick told jurors that police had tunnel vision during the investigation and focused on his client.

Emerick asked Grimm repeatedly whether it was appropriate for her to have suggested his client’s name to the Campbells prior to playing the recording for them.

“Was it purposeful on your part, Det. Grimm … to offer Kareef’s name out loud like that?” he asked.

“It was not purposeful,” she responded.

But Grimm admitted it was an error.

Easington is accused of two counts of criminal homicide and tampering with evidence stemming from the Feb. 15, 2023 shooting deaths of Campbell, 39, and her daughter.

Easington, 36, of Swissvale had been living with Megan Campbell as a boarder for about a year in her apartment on Sailor Place, her brother said.

The prosecution has not offered any motive for the crime to the jury, but Joan Campbell testified on Tuesday that her daughter called her the morning she was killed and told her that Easington had tried to strangle her the night before.

During that phone call, Joan Campbell said she heard her daughter yelling at Easington to get out of her home.

On Wednesday, the prosecution called a series of witnesses who lived in the apartment building.

Two women testified that they heard unusual noises that morning.

Taylor Peabody said she was getting ready for work around 7:30 a.m. when she heard a sound like something falling.

“I heard what sounded like a child’s scream, and I heard what sounded like a smack,” Peabody said.

Peabody said she didn’t call police.

“My initial thought was, ‘What if that was gunshots?’ But I wasn’t sure so I kind of just brushed it off,” she said.

Shanté McDonald, who also lived in the building, gave similar testimony.

“I heard a loud boom. It made me jump up. It was right above me,” she said.

She heard a scream, too, and then a second boom.

McDonald said she thought it was the tenants above her — a different family that lived next to the Campbells — whose child might have been having a tantrum.

She also did not call police.

The last witness of the day was Daniel Wolfe, a member of the mobile crime unit with the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Wolfe testified that police recovered several guns, including a rifle, a Glock and a revolver, as well as magazines and ammunition from the apartment during their search that day.

In addition, investigators recovered two shell casings and a cell phone SIM card in the toilet, Wolfe said.

He will return to the stand Thursday morning when the case resumes for its third day.