Police: Key card, cellphone lead to suspect
After Paul Heath shot himself outside Sheetz on Route 220 in Woodward Township earlier this month, investigators found on him a cellphone and a hotel room card; two key items that helped lead city police to Jameir Rodney Hines.
Heath, 27, and Hines, 23, both of Philadelphia, allegedly forced their way into Shawn Graham’s home at 2225 W. Third St. about 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 7, city police said. During the home invasion, Heath is accused of shooting Graham to death, according to court records made public this week.
Video taken near the victim’s house showed Heath and Hines “casing Graham’s home prior to the robbery-homicide,” Agent Damon Hagan said in an affidavit. Police believe robbery was the motive for the invasion.
Heath who fled the scene in a white Dodge Charger, first wounded city Patrolman Nicholas Carrita who stopped the car several blocks east, and then took officers on an extensive high-speed chase on Route 220 that ended at Sheetz, where he committed suicide during a shootout with state troopers and county sheriff deputies.
Hines fled the house on foot and made his way to Philadelphia, where he was arrested on Monday, police said.
In searching the cellphone recovered from Heath’s body, investigators found someone who identified himself in text messages as “MeirHines,” according to investigators. The cellphone number for “MeirHines” was out of the Philadelphia area.
Also, the room card found on Heath came back to a local business, which had video showing Heath and a second man, later identified as Hines, on the premises when Heath signed in as a guest on Nov. 7, police said.
In searching a database available to law enforcement, police found a photo and an identification of a man who looked very simulator to the individual with Heath at the hotel, Hagan said in the affidavit. The man in the database photo was Hines.
Agent Jason Bolt spent considerable amount of time last week with Philadelphia police in working on leads about Hines. In checking social media, Bolt found that Hines had a Twitter account.
On the face page of the account was a photo that “showed Jameir Hines standing next to Paul Heath in front of a white Dodge Charger, which was rented by Heath’s mother in early November,” Hagan wrote in the affidavit.
In the photo, “both Heath and Hines appear to be wearing identical clothes to what they were wearing on Nov. 7” at the motel, Hagan said.
Also, the clothing Heath was wearing was similar to what he was seen wearing in a video that captured him in the area of Graham’s home “three hours before the crime,” Hagan added.
Graham’s girlfriend, Tara Diemer, who lived with him and was in the house at the time of the home invasion, told investigators that two unidentified men forced their way into the house, fatally shooting Graham, 33, as they entered.
The woman attempted to call 911 with her cellphone, but one of the intruders grabbed the phone, put it in his pocket and tied her hands with duct tape, Hagan said police were told.
After securing Diemer, the same man bound Graham’s hands and feet, Hagan said. Diemer managed to break free, but she was then forced upstairs to locate money which Heath, police said, took from the house.
A neighbor, alerted by someone that something was wrong, saw two men bolt from the property through a back door and called 911, giving a dispatcher a description of a vehicle seen leaving the scene.
The clothing Heath and Hines were wearing in the Twitter photo matched the fleeing suspects’ clothing based on information provided by Diemer and the neighbor, Hagan said.
Police also searched the phone records for the Philadelphia number that was found on Heath’s cellphone that was linked with text messages received from “MeirHines.”
Records for that Philadelphia number “showed that the phone traveled to the Williamsport area on Nov. 7, arriving in town prior to the homicide,” Hagan said.
A T-Mobile tower serving the area revealed that the phone “was present and active” 2,300 feet from Graham’s address, Hagan said, adding that “the phone returned to Philadelphia on Nov. 8.
Hines remains behind bars in the Lycoming County Prison without bail on homicide and related offenses.
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