Homicide charge added in assault case following Uniontown victim’s death
An 18-year-old Uniontown man is now facing a criminal homicide charge in an assault case for allegedly punching a 42-year-old man, who later died.
Fayette County Magisterial District Judge Michael M. Metros denied bail for Randall Vaughn Sheppard following his preliminary hearing this week.
His mother, Laura Thavenius, and the fiancee of the victim, Joshua Thomas, testified she and Thomas were out hiking Aug. 24, and she came home to find a note from Sheppard’s probation officer on the door at their Evans Street home. She told her son he should be responsible and answer the door, and testified Sheppard became angry when Thomas joined in the discussion.
“Stay out of my life. You’re not my dad,” Thavenius recalled her son saying to Thomas.
The men began fighting, and she said she got in between them and told them to stop. Then, she said a blow knocked Thomas into the refrigerator and he lost consciousness.
“I said, ‘Baby please wake up,'” she testified.
She and her son both performed CPR on Thomas, she said.
“We tried to save him. We tried so hard,” she said. “It just didn’t work.”
She described her fiance’ as “very physically fit” and active, and slightly bigger than her son. She said he did not have any known medical problems.
He died at a Pittsburgh trauma center, where he was flown after the fight. Uniontown City Police Det. Jamie Holland testified Thomas died from blunt force trauma to the head in a death ruled as a homicide in an autopsy report.
Sheppard’s attorney, Doug Sepic, argued the homicide charge should be dismissed because his client did not do anything “reckless or grossly negligent,” a requirement of involuntary manslaughter.
“The issue is, there’s nothing in this case that would say it’s more than a fist fight between two guys,” he said.
Assistant District Attorney Wendy O’Brien contended Thomas would not have died if he had not been punched with force.
Sheppard was held for court on charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault and simple assault.