Man found guilty in four-year-old shooting case, but another trial looms

EBENSBURG, Pa. — After nearly four years of waiting and a two-day trial, a Cambria County jury found Keith Reed guilty of conspiracy to commit third-degree murder in the 2014 shooting of Tony Phillips.

Reed, one of three defendants charged in the case, was accused of setting up Phillips to be shot by Joshua Cambric, who was also charged.

Reed was found not guilty of being an accomplice to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, which are more serious charges, although third degree can carry more than 20 years in prison.

Another man, Jeremy Woodard, was charged with homicide in the case and was accused of driving Cambric to kill Phillips, but he pleaded no contest last year to a lesser charge.

After an unexpectedly long six hours of deliberation, the 12-person jury found that Reed had helped arrange Phillips' killing.

Phillips' family, including his sister, told 6 News the third-degree conviction was not what they wanted; they would've preferred a first-degree conviction, which carries a life sentence.

The shooting happened in the early evening of March 30, 2014, outside of Edder’s Den bar in Johnstown.

Attorneys for the commonwealth, including First Assistant District Attorney Heath Long and Assistant District Attorney Jessica Aurandt, argued that Reed helped set up the shooting and was well aware that Cambric was planning to shoot Phillips.

Cambric himself, the accused shooter, has not been found guilty — his trial is this summer.

Prosecutors cited evidence that Reed was hanging out with Cambric and Woodard earlier in the day, as well as evidence that he started calling around to try to find Phillips, which Phillips’ sister testified was surprising to her.

Phillips’ sister also testified that Reed came to the apartment where Phillips was staying and appeared anxious while trying to convince Phillips to go to Edder’s Den with him.

Reed, according to surveillance video and testimony from a detective, rode to Phillips’ apartment in a black SUV with Cambric and Woodard.

After he convinced Phillips to go to Edder’s Den, Reed went out to tell Cambric and Woodard where he and Phillips were going.

A few minutes later, according to surveillance video presented in court, a car carrying Phillips and Reed pulled into the parking lot of Edder’s Den bar.

Reed walked into the bar, where it’s disputed whether he acted nervous or acted normally.

Meantime, the black SUV pulled up in the road, and a man identified in court this week as Joshua Cambric got out.

Cambric walked across the street to the car where Phillips was parked, and, according to testimony from Edward Gawel, the owner of Edder’s Den, and his girlfriend, shot twice through the window and walked away, without even checking who it was he shot.

Phillips was taken to an emergency room after the shooting, where he later died.

According to the video, Cambric got back in the SUV and Woodard drove away, to be later arrested by Johnstown police.

Meantime, according to video, Reed walked out of the bar and, without looking in the direction of the shooting site, walked away from the scene.

Tim Burns, the defense attorney, didn’t dispute much of this in court. Rather, he disputed Reed’s intent.

Burns argued that there was no clear evidence that Reed knew that any of his actions were part of a larger conspiracy to kill Phillips.

During closing arguments, Burns said that Cambric was to blame for the shooting and that Reed was used as a pawn.

Burns also argued that the reason Reed didn’t check on Phillips after the shooting was because he was scared, which is something Reed also told police.

Finally, Burns argued that Reed went to police within 24 hours of the shooting to report what happened, although he first told police that he was just walking by and saw the shooting and later changed his story after he learned police had surveillance video, according to recordings presented in court.

Aurandt, the assistant district attorney, suggested in her closing that Reed was an active participant in the plot to kill Phillips.

She pointed to the fact that Reed had no reason to bring Phillips to Edder’s Den bar, a bar Reed knew Phillips wasn’t allowed to go inside.

She also pointed to the fact that the entire setup seemed to her like a choreographed plot: Reed looking for Phillips; Reed walking out the bar; Reed and Phillips driving to Edder’s Den.

Finally, she made an analogy to hunting. She told the jury that after a hunter kills a deer, the hunter gets the credit, but so do the people who helped lure the deer to be shot. This goes along with the theory of a conspiracy charge in Pennsylvania: A person who is part of a conspiracy to kill someone can be convicted of murder if another person in the conspiracy actually does kill someone.

Burns promised appeals to come, including an appeal on Rule 600, which says trials must happen within a certain time limit. This trial happened nearly four years after the shooting.

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