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Westmoreland County jurors will be able to view a “selfie” taken minutes after 16-year-old Ryan Mangan of Jeannette was fatally shot in his bedroom two years ago, a judge ruled Monday.
Just before the start of jury selection, defense attorney Pat Thomassey filed court documents seeking to bar prosecutors from showing the picture police said his client sent via social media to a friend in Wisconsin that depicted Maxwell Morton, now 18, of Jeannette posing next to Mangan's lifeless body.
Opening statements in Morton's first-degree murder trial will be Tuesday before Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio.
The judge rejected the defense's request that the picture be excluded from evidence because it did not show Mangan's fatal wound described in an autopsy report.
“Counsel contends that the commonwealth's use of the photograph is solely intended to create an emotional bias,” Thomassey wrote.
Morton was 16 at the time but was charged as an adult with Mangan's murder after police obtained a copy of a photograph showing him posing next to the body of the dead teen, who was shot once under his left eye.
Police found the suspected murder weapon, a 9mm handgun, hidden under a stairway in Morton's home.
The defense has argued that the teens were playing with the gun and it accidently fired.
District Attorney John Peck has said the “selfie” is evidence of Morton's intent to kill Mangan.
Tony Gaskew, director of the criminal justice program at the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford, said crimes where social media is used by police to investigate and by participants to boast of their actions are becoming more prevalent.
“The public has a natural addiction to social media and has easy access to that type of equipment,” Gaskew said. “It's an impulsive act, and during the heat of passion some people feel tremendous pressure to tell. Others simply use it to brag without having any idea law enforcement is monitoring social media.”
A study by the International Association of Chiefs of Police found that about 97 percent of all police departments use social media as a tool to investigate crimes.
For younger people, social media and the impulse to communicate with others has made it easier for police to solve crimes, Gaskew said. He noted a growing number of cases across the country have been cracked by investigators who found evidence on social media.
“Nearly everyone has access to it,” Gaskew said.
Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.
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