No. 6 story of 2022: Man awaits trial in mother's murder
Dec. 27—Lawrence County's law enforcement is prosecuting a man for the violent death of his own mother earlier this year.
It was the county's second mother-son homicide within the past two years.
This year's was the bizarre story of Shane McDevitt of Neshannock Township, a red-headed 20-year-old, now 21, who is accused of bludgeoning his mother, 65-year-old Cecelia Liposky, to death with a paperweight and a clawhammer on May 9 in the living room of her Coaltown Hill home.
The previous year, Louis Esposito was arrested for a double homicide and shooting on Dewey Avenue.
He is accused of stabbing his 81-year-old mother, Margaret Kahrer and his landlord and neighbor, 78-year-old John Micco, to death in their homes. Also during that rampage, he is accused of shooting a third neighbor in the chest who has since recovered. Esposito remains in the Lawrence County jail without bond, awaiting trial.
McDevitt has been in the county jail without bond since his May 11 arrest. District Attorney Joshua Lamancusa said he anticipates the trial will commence sometime in 2023.
What preceded McDevitt's arrest was a strange series of events.
Investigators determined Liposky died around 3 p.m. May 9, but lay dead in her home on Mercer Road until the next morning when her body was discovered. An autopsy confirmed the cause of her death was homicide, and that she died from blunt force trauma to the head.
McDevitt, after reportedly ending her life, took her gray 2014 Nissan Sentra and drove into Allegheny County, where he led police on a high-speed chase on Route 28 and crashed into a pole near the Pittsburgh Mills mall, according to information provided by the state police.
Police learned McDevitt had been staying at Liposky's house since that Sunday. His red Volkswagen sedan was parked in her garage, and her Sentra was missing when they arrived. They had issued a BOLO (Be On the Lookout) for the Nissan. Police in Allegheny County spotted it the morning of May 11 and tried to pull it over, but McDevitt fled from them.
He suffered only scrapes and scratches in the crash, and police took him for his court arraignment in his bare feet, with a bandaged upper calf and his knees caked with dirt.
A criminal complaint filed by police details during their interview with him, McDevitt initially had told them someone needed to go to his mother's house because he killed her. He confessed he hit her in the head repeatedly with the round piece of glass and hammer.
He provided other details about the crime scene that weren't released to the media or other public sources that only Liposky's attacker could have known, police reported. He told the troopers he had attacked his mother during an argument they had about his drug addiction, they said.
Liposky's body was discovered the morning of May 10 after her daughter called the police and requested a welfare check on her. Liposky's companion also called the police, reporting he was at her home and could see her through a window, lying on the living room floor. The Neshannock Township police entered the house and found her in a pool of blood, and they turned the investigation over to the state police's major case team.
At the time of Liposky's death, McDevitt was wanted on a warrant for identity theft and DUI cases in Butler County.
McDevitt is considered innocent until proven guilty or adjudicated in court.
Lamancusa said he is not pursuing the death penalty against McDevitt because the case does not meet the aggravated circumstances as described under the law. The homicide charge, if he is convicted of first- or second-degree murder, could carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
McDevitt previously served 1 1/2 to 3 years in jail after pleading guilty to a 2016 robbery of the Subway restaurant in Neshannock Township.
