Crime scenes, deaths outlined in trial over drug-related killings in Erie in 2018

An Erie police officer who was the first to respond to a report of a found body on the early afternoon of Aug. 30, 2018, found a young man dead on the floor in the hallway of a ransacked apartment at East 26th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Erie.

Several days later, another city police officer would enter a similarly ransacked apartment on West 29th Street and find a naked man dead in the bathroom.

The victims, 24-year-old Calvin Isaiah and 44-year-old Phillip Clark, each died of gunshot wounds, Erie County forensic pathologist Eric Vey, M.D., testified on Friday during the trials of three Erie men charged in an alleged crime spree from 2018 that included the killings.

In Clark's death, one of the two bullets that struck him tore through his outstretched arm as he likely was sitting on the toilet before the bullet entered his body and went through his heart, Vey testified.

The three men on trial before Erie County Judge David Ridge are Christopher J. Bridges, 22; Destin A. Dortch, 22; and Raeshawn D. McCallum, 24. They are accused, along with two other co-defendants, 43-year-old Chinello A. Blaski and 32-year-old Nicholas J. Grayson, of being involved in a home-invasion robbery spree that led to the deaths of Isaiah and Clark and injured two people in another incident from September 2018.

McCallum is additionally on trial on charges in a June 18, 2018 incident in which Erie police accuse him of robbing another man of jewelry and shooting him in the leg.

The trial of Bridges, Dortch and McCallum, which opened on Thursday afternoon, is expected to resume on Monday.

More: Trial over 2 drug-related killings will reveal Erie's 'grisly underworld,' prosecutor says

A deadly crime spree

Erie Chief Deputy District Attorney Jeremy Lightner, in his opening statement at the start of trial on Thursday, told the jury that the three defendants on trial targeted drug dealers and others to steal money and drugs and picked out victims they believed would be less inclined to report the robberies.

In the death of Isaiah, according to case documents and court testimony, he was shot inside his apartment a day after some members of the group reportedly had broken in and stolen items including a rifle and clothing.

In the death of Clark, according to case documents and testimony, members of the group went to Clark's residence to case it before some went inside and Clark was killed.

Another home-invasion robbery occurred on Sept. 3, 2018, at a residence in the 1100 block of West 20th Street. Two people were assaulted and tied up and a fire was started inside the residence, according to police.

Bridges faces charges including murder in connection with the fatal shooting of Clark; burglary and other charges related to an Aug. 28, 2018, break-in at the apartment of Isaiah; and burglary and other charges related to the West 20th Street home-invasion robbery.

Dortch faces charges including murder in the killings of Isaiah and Clark; and burglary and other offenses in the break-in at Isaiah's apartment.

McCallum faces murder and other charges in Clark's killing; burglary and related charges in the break-in at Isaiah's residence the day before he was killed; and robbery and other charges in the Sept. 3, 2018, home invasion robbery.

Grayson is scheduled for trial in November, according to court docket information. A trial date for Blaski was not listed on his online court docket sheet.

Grayson faces charges related to the reported casing of Clark's residence before he was killed, and charges related to the West 20th Street home-invasion robbery.

Blaski, who faces murder and other charges related to the fatal shooting of Clark and charges in the West 20th Street home-invasion robbery, was expected to testify at the trial on Friday afternoon. Lightner said in his opening statement that Grayson is also expected to testify during the trial.

Grisly scenes

An Erie police officer testified Friday morning that after arriving at Isaiah's East 26th Street residence shortly after noon on Aug. 30, 2018, he was met by a cousin and a friend of Isaiah's who said they found Isaiah dead inside the apartment. Isaiah's body was found in a small hallway off the bedroom, the officer testified. He also said the front door was partially broken, and that a couch was in front of it as if it was being used as a barricade.

The apartment had been ransacked, the officer said.

He said after other officers arrived, he searched the perimeter of the apartment and found what looked to be pry bars on a window facing an alley beside the building. Fresh fingerprints were also found on a window, the officer testified.

Vey testified that he determined during autopsy that Isaiah died of a gunshot wound that entered the left side of his chest, passed through his heart and stomach and exited the body.

The officer who first responded to Clark's residence testified that he arrived to find a large group of people outside, and was told by a woman that her son was dead inside. He said he went inside to find Clark, who was naked, on the bathroom floor.

The apartment appeared to have been "flipped," with drawers open and couch cushions and mattresses flipped over, the officer testified.

Vey testified that Clark, who was paraplegic, was shot twice. One of the bullets went through his arm and heart, and the other bullet went into his side and through his liver, Vey testified.

The gunshots that killed Isaiah and Clark were fired from a distance, according to Vey's testimony.

Erie police detectives testified at the preliminary hearings for Bridges, Dortch and McCallum in April 2022 that evidence they used in linking the suspects to the crimes included a gun, which had been buried in a wooded area off East 38th Street, that was matched to shell casings recovered at the Clark homicide scene.

Lightner, in his opening statement, said police also have fingerprints and DNA evidence to link the three defendants to the crimes.

Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie PA killings in 2018: Crime scenes, 2 deaths outlined in trial