Father ordered to stand trial on charges of strangling, murdering son in New Kensington

A man accused of killing his 9-year-old son earlier this year in New Kensington will stand trial.

During a preliminary hearing Wednesday, District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. held Jean J. Charles, 40, of Brackenridge for trial on criminal homicide, first-degree murder, unlawful restraint, strangulation, concealing the death of a child, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

Prosecutors allege Charles strangled his son, Azuree Charles, and then tried to hide his body May 4. Azuree was found a few hours after his mother, Luella Elien, reported him missing that morning from their home on Haser Drive in East Ken Manor.

Elien, 29, separately waived her preliminary hearing on charges of aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children and hindering apprehension.

Police charged Charles and Elien in September.

Police allege Elien allowed Charles, her ex-husband, to watch Azuree and his three younger sisters unsupervised despite knowing he was not to have contact with Azuree. That was because he previously pleaded guilty to assaulting the boy in 2019 and was accused of doing so again last November.

Charles appeared before Pallone chained and wearing prison attire. He said nothing during the roughly two-and-a- half-hour hearing.

Charles’ public defender, Michael Garofalo, entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of his client. He later argued for the charges against Charles to be dismissed, saying there was no testimony placing Charles with Azuree when he was killed, and that prosecutors had not established that he had played any part in his son’s death.

Pallone found there was enough circumstantial evidence to support the charges and hold Charles for trial.

Garofalo declined to comment or answer any questions after the hearing.

Jason Napier, a detective with the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office, and New Kensington police Detective Sgt. Sam Long were the only witnesses to take the stand.

Prosecutors played a recording of an interview police had with a 13-year-old boy who was a neighbor of Azuree, and Elien’s call to 911 reporting Azuree missing.

They also played videos they say show Charles walking, first in East Ken Manor with a shovel and Azuree’s bicycle, and later along Fourth Avenue in Tarentum toward Brackenridge.

Napier testified he was present for the interview with the 13-year-old on May 10, six days after Azuree was found.

The boy’s interview, played over a laptop, was faint and difficult to hear in the courtroom. Prosecutors argued for its submission over Garofalo’s objections because of the emotional distress testifying in court could cause him.

The boy’s mother and stepmother were present to testify to that, but they were not called to the stand. Pallone allowed the recording’s submission after a private review.

According to the affidavit against Charles and the portions of the recording that could be heard, the boy said he heard banging and Azuree yelling about 2:30 a.m. The boy said Azuree sounded scared.

Long, the lead investigator, said police found Azuree’s home in disarray that morning, including ketchup on the floor of his bedroom, the back door open and things inside the home that were not supposed to be there.

A surveillance camera that had been positioned to look out the front window of the living room was found in a glass of water. Long said police are not aware of there being any recordings from that camera.

In the recording of the 911 call played in court, Elien tells a dispatcher that she woke up to find Azuree gone and her home a mess. She said she had last seen him when she put him to bed at 8 p.m.

Asked if Azuree could have run away, Elien said he had done so before, including once trying to get to a McDonald’s but not getting far.

Azuree’s body was found near his home, behind a shed and over an embankment. Long said he was found face down with no clothes on, mud on his upper body and in his nose and mouth, with lawn furniture and a cooler on top of him. His pajamas were found hanging in tree branches.

Prosecutors say an autopsy found Azuree was mechanically strangled, meaning something such as a cord was used, but they did not specify what had been used.

Prosecutors say the videos contradict where Charles told police he had been, including walking from New Kensington to Aspinwall, and then to Market Square in downtown Pittsburgh.

In a video taken at Haser and Dent drives in East Ken Manor, a person wearing an olive green hoodie and black jeans is seen pushing Azuree’s bicycle and carrying a shovel with a broken handle. Police say Charles’ DNA was found on the shovel, which a neighbor found behind their house.

A person wearing the same clothing, who prosecutors say is Charles, was seen on video walking past the Valley News Dispatch on Fourth Avenue in Tarentum toward Brackenridge.

While waiting for a warrant to search Charles’ Brackenridge apartment, Long said he found the hoodie and jeans behind an abandoned building across the street. Police said testing found Charles’ DNA on it.

But Garofalo said tests did not find Azuree’s DNA on the clothes. While Garofalo said they were the clothes police believe Charles was wearing during the commission of the crime, Long testified they do not know what Charles was wearing at the time.

Charles and Elien are being held in the Westmoreland County jail. Charles was denied bail; Elien is being held on $50,000 bail.

They are each scheduled for formal arraignments Dec. 21.