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Delco Times
April 23, 2015
Two cousins who pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and related offenses for their roles in the September 2013 shooting death of Jason Scott McClay inside a Chester Rite Aid were sentenced to lengthy prison terms Tuesday.
Ashaniere White, 21, and her cousin, Christopher Parks, 25, were given identical sentences of 15 to 50 years in a state correctional facility for robbery and murder in the third degree.
Parks and White also were sentenced to seven to 14 years each in separate cases for prior robberies that occurred at the same store. Common Pleas Judge George Pagano ran Parks’ sentence for those cases consecutive to his murder sentence for an aggregate of 22 to 64 years in prison.
White will serve her additional sentence concurrent to her murder sentence, the judge ordered.
Neither defendant is eligible for early release.
Both Parks and White agreed to cooperate with authorities in prosecuting three other defendants in McClay’s murder: Rita Pultro, Tariq Mahmud and David Wiggins.
Pultro, 24, was convicted on first-degree murder, while Mahmud, 25, and Wiggins, 26, each were found guilty of second-degree murder following a weeklong trial earlier this year. All three defendants also were convicted on conspiracy and robbery charges, and Wiggins and Pultro additionally were found guilty of carrying a firearm without a license.
McClay, 40, of Marple, was a Haverford High School graduate and a U.S. Navy veteran who had been working at the Ninth Street and Highland Avenue store location on the night of Sept. 19, 2013.
He was fatally shot during a scuffle with Pultro after he learned she and Wiggins intended to rob the store. Wiggins and Pultro fled to a waiting vehicle driven by Parks. Mahmud, a four-year Rite Aid employee, helped coordinate the robbery, as well as several others Parks and White had participated in.
White’s attorney, Kevin O’Neill, noted his client fully cooperated with authorities from the moment she was arrested on Oct. 2, 2013, and met with prosecutors at least six times leading up to the trial to help them build their case.
He argued that White’s only concern during that period was to make things right for McClay’s family and to ensure her own family did not suffer repercussions as a result of her testimony.
Jonathan Altshuler, representing Parks, also noted his client began cooperating with authorities about two months after his arrest and extended that cooperation into the trial phase.
Both attorneys asked Pagano, at separate hearings Tuesday, to sentence in the mitigated range, arguing their clients’ unwavering cooperation and testimony was instrumental in securing convictions against the other defendants.
