Victim testifies to encounter with alleged gunman
Oct. 3—PITTSTON — Encountering a stranger removing stickers from the rear window of her vehicle, Alyssa Bulford said she asked the man what he was doing.
Bulford, 21, asked again and again.
Feeling danger, Bulford said she turned around to return to Envy Nail Salon in the Pittston Crossing shopping plaza when she was shot twice in the lower back on June 2, 2022.
Bulford testified against the alleged gunman, Christopher Nelson Carmona, 38, of New York City, during a near three hour preliminary hearing before District Judge Alexandra Kokura Kravitz in Pittston Tuesday.
Bulford identified Carmona as the man who shot her despite not seeing him with a firearm.
"I had my back turned to him," Bulford said.
Kokura Kravitz determined Luzerne County assistant district attorneys Jarrett Ferentino and Shana Messinger established a case against Carmona, sending charges of criminal attempt to commit homicide, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, illegal possession of a firearm and two counts of simple assault to county court.
Carmona, who once was declared incompetent to face charges, remains jailed at the county correctional facility without bail.
"By the grace of God, she survived," Ferentino said.
Bulford said she left the nail salon business and walked up on a man to what she believed was removing stickers from the rear window of her vehicle. She asked him several times what he was going with the man only replying, "I don't know."
Bulford said the man asked for a ride and if she was calling police. Sensing fear, Bulford said she intended to return to the nail salon business.
"What happened when you turned around," Ferentino asked.
"He shot me; Everything got really hot," Bulford said, noting she crawled into the nail salon business and hid behind a counter.
Bulford said she had never seen Carmona prior to the shooting.
Upon questions by Carmona's attorney, Demeterius Fannick, Bulford said she never saw Carmona holding a firearm when she asked him what he was going to her vehicle.
With a description of the gunman, Pennsylvania State Police Corporal Matthew Lopresto said video footage from the nearby Walmart store showed Carmona purchasing items, including a cellular phone, Hanes boxer briefs and bandannas prior to loitering in the parking lot for nearly one hour.
Video footage showed Carmona approaching the area where the nail salon business is located minutes before the shooting, Lopresto testified.
State Police Lieutenant Derrick Felsman testified to apprehending Carmona along state Route 315 about four hours after the shooting and less than one mile from the shopping center.
Lopresto and Felsman said when Carmona was apprehended, he was in possession of a backpack containing a .40-caliber handgun, a .32-caliber handgun, ammunition and bandannas.
A search of the area where Carmona was found uncovered a 9mm semi-automatic handgun wrapped in a bandana, Lopresto said.
Lopresto said ballistics tests showed the 9mm found in the woods matched the tool markings on 9mm shell casings recovered from the scene of the shooting.
As Carmona fled the scene after the alleged shooting, a man who is licensed to carry a firearm fired at least three shots at him, District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said at the time.
Sanguedolce later ruled the man was justified.
