Meadville man, sentenced in Crawford homicide probe, pleads to gun charge in Edinboro
A Meadville man apprehended in Edinboro eight months after Meadville police charged him in connection with a break-in and fatal shooting in the Crawford County city pleaded guilty on Wednesday to illegally possessing guns that police found during his arrest.
Erie County Judge John J. Mead sentenced Timothy T. Bolden, 27, to six to 12 years in prison on Bolden's guilty plea Wednesday morning to a first-degree felony count of possession of a firearm prohibited. Mead followed an agreement reached between Erie County prosecutors and Bolden's lawyer, Ken Bickel, and made the sentence run concurrent to the 15-to-30-year prison sentence Bolden received in Crawford County earlier this month on his guilty pleas to two charges in the Meadville homicide case.
Assistant District Attorney Tayler Moses told Mead before sentencing that it is quite clear through Bolden's history that he is a very dangerous man, and the sentence he is serving out of Crawford County reflects that.
Bolden made no comments during Wednesday's hearing other than to answer Mead's questions.
Meadville homicide
Bolden was one of five people charged by Meadville police in connection with the July 3, 2021, death of Nathaniel E. Harris, 19, at an apartment in the 300 block of Walnut Street in the city. Harris was shot after witnesses said several people broke into the apartment, according to investigators.
Meadville police initially charged Bolden with robbery and criminal trespass in connection with the break-in and shooting, accusing him of robbing one of the occupants of the Walnut Street apartment. Police withdrew those charges and filed a new set of criminal charges against Bolden, including criminal homicide, following his apprehension in Edinboro on March 9, 2022.
Bolden pleaded guilty on Jan. 5 to first-degree felony counts of burglary and conspiracy to commit robbery in the case and was sentenced by Crawford County President Judge John Spataro to serve 15 to 30 years in state prison, according to court records and testimony presented at Wednesday's hearing.
Two of Bolden's co-defendants in the case also pleaded guilty to charges and were sentenced.
Kavan M. Boitnott, 19, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced in September 2022 to 30 years to life, according to court records and the Crawford County District Attorney's Office.
Jayden I. Speed, 20, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit robbery, burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary and was sentenced to serve 10 to 20 years in prison, according to court records.
The cases against the other two co-defendants, 20-year-old Qwamae D. Sherene, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, and 19-year-old Martavious K. Stout, who was 16 at the time, are still awaiting resolution in Crawford County Court.
Apprehension in Edinboro
Authorities were looking for Bolden when members of the U.S. Marshals Western Pennsylvania Fugitive Task Force found him at an apartment in the 200 block of Meadville Street in Edinboro on the late morning of March 9, 2022.
Two guns were also found in the apartment, and Edinboro police recovered them after serving a search warrant on the apartment, authorities reported at the time.
Both guns were loaded, according to testimony presented in court Wednesday.
Edinboro police charged Bolden with two felony counts of possession of a firearm prohibited, a felony count of receiving stolen property and two misdemeanor drug charges following Bolden's arrest. The other charges were dropped under the agreement that led to Bolden's plea Wednesday.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Meadville man pleads to gun charge related to apprehension in Edinboro
