The Pennsylvania man charged in connection to the deadly shooting of three people on New Year’s Eve in Pittsburgh’s Homewood South neighborhood is heading to trial.
29-year-old Ronald Steave will stand trial on three counts of criminal homicide for the shooting deaths of 28-year-old Nandi Fitzgerald, 28-year-old Tatiana Hill, and 13-year-old Denzel Nowlin.
Investigators say Fitzgerald and Steave had shared a 4-year-old son who died of a gunshot wound back in November 2021. A preliminary investigation showed the boy had accidentally shot himself.
Wednesday afternoon, evidence in the case against Steave was presented in a preliminary hearing. Investigators said Steave spent several hours at the home on Hamilton Avenue New Year’s Eve morning.
“A bullet shot through the wall in the girls’ room, and the girls were upstairs. We’re out,” a neighbor said in a 911 call recording.
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That 911 call was made at 3:58 a.m. on New Year’s Eve. Police arrived shortly after 4 a.m.
Court documents show a string of texts between a contact who investigators determined to be Steave, telling Fitzgerald at 11:55 p.m. on Dec. 30, to “unlock the front door.” She responded, “It’s open.”
Prosecutors presented surveillance images from city cameras, capturing Steave leaving Fitzgerald’s house shortly after the shooting.
The evidence pinpointed Steave’s black Nissan Altima driving away from the home, before pulling into the driveway of Steave’s grandmother’s home. About an hour later, the car was seen driving on Versailles Avenue in McKeesport.
Following close behind, they pointed out a Chevy Traverse, registered to an ex-girlfriend of Steave, who investigators discovered had an active PFA against him.
Later that morning, his car was found in McKeesport, where it was confiscated and scanned for other evidence, where police say they found attempts to clean the blood off the seats and console. Inside it, investigators said, was a gun and 9-millimeter casings, matching the ones found at the scene.
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When Steave’s attorney, Lisa Caulfield, was asked how she will approach this trial, she said:
“It’s too soon to say. It’s a preliminary hearing. I have no access to discovery, to videos. I have no access to anything yet,” Caulfield said.
She declined to comment on the quality of the evidence presented in court on Wednesday.
Four days after the shooting, investigators found and searched the car registered to Steave’s ex-girlfriend. They said blood evidence indicated Steave had been in the car. It’s unclear if she will face charges as well.
Steave was wanted for nearly three months before he was taken into custody.
He remains in the Allegheny County Jail.
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