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WILKES-BARRE — Two brothers accused of attempted homicide shot a drug dealer in self-defense after a buy went bad, defense attorneys argued Tuesday.
Dashawn McClendon, 22, and Ibn McClain, 17, both of Wilkes-Barre, are charged with multiple crimes related to a 2015 robbery spree in the city, but are being tried this week in Luzerne County Court on only the charges involving shooting victim Ian Nieves.
Nieves, who has identified himself as an “associate” of McLendon and McClain, was shot in the thigh and shoulder after picking up the brothers near North Pennsylvania Avenue and East Chestnut Street on Dec. 4, 2015, prosecutor Matthew Muckler told the jury during opening statements.
Nieves, 22 at the time, was ordered to stop the car. When he did, McClain exited the vehicle and shot Nieves in the shoulder, Muckler said. Wounded, Nieves hit the gas pedal while attempting to fight off an armed McLendon and sent the car hurtling down the street, according to Muckler.
Nieves was then allegedly shot in the leg and narrowly avoided another gunshot before his vehicle struck a parked car on North Main Street. McClain fired into the vehicle multiple times before “leaving (Nieves) for dead,” Muckler added.
“These two defendants shot Ian Nieves, hit him twice and attempted to kill him,” argued the prosecutor.
McLendon’s defense attorney, Robert C. Trichilo, said Nieves brandished a weapon of his own after Nieves failed to come through with the drugs McLendon paid for. Nieves, Trichilo said, “threatened McLendon with injury.”
“In a struggle, (McLendon’s) gun discharged and that’s how (Nieves) was shot,” he said, adding McClain thought McLendon “was in trouble and tried to save his brother.”
There was no intent to kill, said the defense lawyer.
“If they wanted to kill (Nieves), they could have,” Trichilo said. “But the evidence will show they left him there, and they left him there alive.”
McClain’s attorney, Laura C. Dennis, labeled the encounter “a drug deal that went bad.”
It made little sense, she argued, that Nieves would randomly pick up two people he knew who shot him for no reason.
Nieves, the prosecution’s first witness, acknowledged he was a convicted drug dealer who had marijuana on him that night, but denied selling any or having a gun. He described being shot twice and narrowly missing being shot a third time, saying he was “nervous, scared about dying” throughout the ordeal.
Now 23, Nieves told the jury he is still suffering from his wounds, noting one bullet remains lodged in his shoulder.
“I’m in pain almost every day,” he said.
The brothers are charged separately with robbing a taxi driver several days before Nieves was shot, while McClain faces separate counts for allegedly shooting another taxi driver weeks earlier. Those cases are expected to be tried at a later date.
