NORRISTOWN — A West Pottsgrove teenager charged as an adult for the alleged gunshot slaying of a man during an altercation the day before Thanksgiving, just yards from the Pottstown police station in Security Plaza, will seek to transfer his case to juvenile court.
Thomas James Niarhos’ defense strategy was revealed during his formal arraignment hearing on Friday in Montgomery County Court on charges of first- and third-degree murder, firearms not to be carried without a license, possessing an instrument of crime and possession of a firearm by a minor in connection with the Nov. 22, 2023, gunshot slaying of 39-year-old Jeramiah Waylon Hawkins.
Niarhos, 16, of the unit block of East Race Street, waived his arraignment and entered not-guilty pleas to the charges. Niarhos, wearing a black shirt and black pants, looked downward during the brief hearing and allowed his lawyer to speak on his behalf to the judge.
The teenager is the son of well-known homeless advocate Tom Niarhos, executive director of the Pottstown homeless agency Beacon of Hope. Niarhos was supported in the courtroom by his parents and his grandmother.
Judge William R. Carpenter scheduled a May 17 status conference with the lawyers in the case at which time he will set a date for a hearing on Niarhos’ request to decertify his case to juvenile court where potential punishments are less harsh and the focus is more on rehabilitation and treatment.
Niarhos, who was 15 at the time of the alleged fatal shooting, was charged as an adult because of the violent nature of the incident.
“Thomas was 15 years old and this is a very tragic circumstance and we have hired an expert to support us in the decertification application,” said defense lawyer Karen R. Thek, the assistant chief homicide lawyer in the county public defender’s office.
To get the case transferred to juvenile court, Thek will have to convince the judge that Niarhos is amenable to treatment in the juvenile system considering his young age, mental health and personal history and the nature and circumstances of the alleged incident and that the transfer to juvenile court will serve the public interest.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Marvel and co-prosecutor Anne O’Connell indicated they will review the defense request to decertify the case.
“Every time the defense files a motion, before we would make a decision about how we will proceed, we need to review the motion itself, any defense evidence that there will be and any expert reports. We always need to consider all the information before we make a decision but I would anticipate that we will fight decertification,” Marvel said after the arraignment hearing.
A conviction of a juvenile in adult court of first-degree murder can carry a sentence of decades to up to life imprisonment. First-degree murder is an intentional killing. A conviction of third-degree murder, a killing committed with malice, a hardness of heart or recklessness of consequences, carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in adult court.
However, if Niarhos’ case is transferred to juvenile court and the charges are proven, then Niarhos could be kept under court supervision until he’s 21. Punishments in juvenile court can include placement in a juvenile detention facility, a rehabilitation facility for treatment or counseling or house arrest.
Typically, during decertification hearings, defense lawyers have to establish that transferring a case to juvenile court will serve the public interest and that the juvenile is in need of treatment and rehabilitative programs.
Juvenile court cases are handled differently than adult criminal cases. In juvenile court, there are no juries and all cases are handled by a judge. While adult court proceedings focus more on punishment, in juvenile court the focus is on rehabilitation.
In juvenile court, offenders are never referred to as “guilty” but are considered “adjudicated delinquent” if the charges are proven. Additionally, juvenile courts aren’t bound by the same sentencing guidelines used in adult criminal courts.
Niarhos remains in custody without bail pending the decertification hearing and trial.
Court documents indicate the altercation between the then 15-year-old Niarhos and Hawkins may have been related to Niarhos’ belief that Hawkins had raped his 16-year-old girlfriend several months earlier. In July 2023, Niarhos allegedly told police that a homeless man named “Jay” was responsible for the rape.
Court documents indicate Pottstown detectives investigated the accusations and the girl’s mother told detectives the girl would only say that “something had happened to her” in Pottstown but would provide no details. The girl’s mother told detectives the family did not wish to press charges.
Witnesses to the shooting told detectives that Niarhos yelled “you’re a rapist,” at Hawkins during the fatal encounter.
Marvel said the case is not about what the victim did or did not do, it’s about the decisions Niarhos allegedly made that day.
“This is a case where a young person took the law into his own hands,” Marvel said. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter why he believed he was entitled to take this person’s life. The evidence we will put forth in court at trial will show that this was not a justified killing, it was not a reasonable decision, but that it was a premeditated act of murder.”
Marvel added when someone is killed in broad daylight just yards from the police department “it affects everyone’s feelings of safety.”
Hawkins’ relatives previously told MediaNews Group they didn’t believe the rape accusations and that Hawkins would never hurt another person.
Relatives of Hawkins also refuted officials’ previous statements that Hawkins was homeless at the time of his death. They said Hawkins, while at times may have briefly experienced homelessness, resided in an apartment in the Germantown section of Philadelphia at the time of his death.
The investigation began about 12:07 p.m. Nov. 22, when Pottstown police were dispatched to a shooting on South Hanover Street at Security Plaza, near the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks and the hub for the Pottstown Area Rapid Transit bus routes.
“Several witnesses to the shooting pointed out the male shooting victim (Hawkins), who was lying on South Hanover Street at the entrance to Security Plaza,” county Detective John Wittenberger and Pottstown Detective Michael Damiano wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Witnesses also directed police to the parking lot area of the Blue Elephant Restaurant where witnesses had detained Niarhos, who they identified as the shooter.
As police took Niarhos into custody, a police body camera recorded Niarhos screaming, “he’s a rapist, don’t be sorry for him” and “he raped a 15-year-old girl, don’t help him,” to first responders treating Hawkins, according to the criminal complaint.
Police said Hawkins had an obvious gunshot wound to the head and he was transported to Pottstown Hospital where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy determined Hawkins had been shot once on the right side of his face at close range. A forensic pathologist determined the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and the manner of death was homicide.
According to detectives, witnesses reported they had observed Hawkins and Niarhos arguing and Niarhos brandishing a handgun and firing it at Hawkins during the argument. One witness told police he heard Niarhos repeatedly yelling, “you’re a rapist” and shooting the victim “point blank,” according to the criminal complaint.
Detectives obtained surveillance camera footage that captured the alleged shooting. In the video, Niarhos “can be seen extending his arm toward Hawkins, at close range, as if holding a firearm.”
Hawkins, who was near a bike and holding a spare tire, appeared to attempt to knock the gun out of Niarhos’ hand with the bicycle tire, but Niarhos fired one single shot at Hawkins’ face “and Hawkins immediately falls to the ground,” detectives alleged.
“As Hawkins is falling to the ground, it appears Niarhos fires a second shot at Hawkins before dropping the gun and quickly walking away toward the parking lot of the Blue Elephant,” Wittenberger and Damiano alleged.
Detectives recovered a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson semiautomatic handgun and two fired cartridge casings at the scene of the shooting.
Detectives determined the firearm belonged to Niarhos’ father, who told detectives he kept his gun in a locked nightstand in his bedroom and kept the key in another location in the bedroom, according to court papers. Niarhos’ father told detectives that was the only firearm that was missing from his residence.
“Mr. Niarhos stated that he had no knowledge that his son took or possessed his firearm. Mr. Niarhos informed detectives that today (Nov. 22) he found a note in his son’s bedroom indicating that his son planned to run away and located a packed bag of clothes and a cellular phone charger in his son’s bedroom,” Wittenberger and Damiano wrote in court papers.
