A Pennsylvania man was formally arraigned on criminal homicide and related charges Monday for the March shooting death of his roommate in Upper Darby.
34-year-old Nathaniel Antonio Bing is also charged with first- and third-degree murder, and possessing an instrument of crime for allegedly shooting 31-year-old Michael Jones in the early morning hours of March 11. Defense attorney Timothy Tarpey entered a plea of “not guilty” on all counts Monday and Common Pleas Court Judge Dominic Pileggi set a pretrial conference date of June 20.
Upper Darby Police Officer Charles Peterson told former Deputy District Attorney Christopher DiRosato during a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Kelly A. Micozzie-Aguirre last month that he received a call for a report of a shooting at apartment 318 B Christopher Place about 3:57 a.m. DiRosato has since left the office and Assistant District Attorney Katie Magee is now prosecuting.
Peterson, who was in the nearby Primos Elementary School parking lot, said he responded immediately to the call and came upon a red car directly in front of 318 that appeared to be pulling away just as he arrived. He stopped the car, driven by a female, and asked why she was there.
The woman told him that she had just dropped her boyfriend off at 318 B to collect his things. Peterson ordered her to park and called for backup. The first-floor resident came outside and allowed officers access to the second floor, telling them, “They need help on the second floor, hurry up, hurry up!” Peterson said.
But Peterson said dispatch relayed that the 911 caller who reported the shooting was in fact the shooter and was being directed to exit the building unarmed. Bing came out of the second-floor apartment and was taken into custody by another officer, Peterson said.
Peterson and two other officers then went upstairs and found Jones lying on the floor of the apartment’s living room, he said. Jones was suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest and took a couple of labored breaths, but Peterson said he could not get any response from him. Paramedics waiting outside for the apartment to be cleared were quickly brought up and worked on Jones for about half an hour before he was pronounced dead at the scene, said Peterson. No one else was in the apartment, he said.
Peterson said he found a black Ruger .380 handgun on a kitchen table and saw a single spent shell casing in the hallway outside the apartment’s two bedrooms. He said the apartment did not appear to be in disarray when he came in and he found someone’s belongings neatly packed near the front door.
Upper Darby Detective Kevin Gamber also testified that he spoke with Bing later that morning, and that the defendant had admitted to shooting Jones.
The story Bing provided to Gamber was as follows: Bing and Jones had met while working together in 2007 and become friends. Jones needed a place to stay and Bing offered his disused daughter’s room for three months at $400 per month. Jones was paid up in full and the living arrangement had been in place about a month and a half before the shooting took place.
About 11 p.m. the night before the shooting, Bing told Gamber that he came home from work to find his lights on, a liquor bottle, women’s hair and eyelashes in the shower, a lubricant bottle and what appeared to be semen stains on his couch. Bing called Jones to see if he had a woman in the apartment while he was at work, Gamber said.
“He was very upset because this was not the first time that Mr. Jones had brought females into his house and he wanted him out of the apartment by the weekend,” said Gamber.
Bing also called Jones’s girlfriend and spoke with her about the situation, and used Facetime to show her the condition of the apartment, according to Gamber. The girlfriend confronted Jones, who in turn confronted Bing, Gamber said.
“(It was in) his words that Mr. Jones said he wanted to ‘rumble’ him, which (Bing) knew to mean fight him,” said Gamber. “He believed that Mr. Jones was talking crazy and he advised him to come get his belongings over the weekend.”
Bing told Gamber that he informed his downstairs neighbor that he would be changing the locks and told him not to let Jones inside, according to the detective. Bing also put a chair in front of the door before going to bed around 3 a.m.
Gamber said Bing was awakened by the sound of the door opening and the chair moving, and retrieved his handgun from a dresser. When he saw it was Jones coming into the apartment, an argument ensued, Gamber said.
As Bing told Gamber: The two argued about 10 minutes before Bing told Jones to leave. Jones approached Bing and threw a punch at him, causing Bing to retreat into the hallway toward the bathroom. Jones swung again, striking him in the neck and shoulder area after scraping the narrow hallway. Bing removed the gun from his pocket and fired a single round, striking Jones in the chest. Jones went backward a few steps and fell on the floor. Bing then called 911 and told Jones, “Stay with me.”
Bing remains in custody at the county jail without bail due to the nature of the charges.
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