NORRISTOWN — A teenager from West Pottsgrove who has been charged as an adult for allegedly shooting and killing a man during a fight the day before Thanksgiving, near the Pottstown police station in Security Plaza, will try to move his case to juvenile court.
During his official court hearing on Friday in Montgomery County, Thomas James Niarhos, who is facing charges of first- and third-degree murder, firearms not allowed without a license, carrying a crime instrument, and possessing a firearm as a minor for the shooting death of 39-year-old Jeramiah Waylon Hawkins on November 22, 2023, revealed his defense strategy.
Niarhos, 16, from the unit block of East Race Street, skipped his court hearing and pleaded not guilty to the charges. He wore a black shirt and pants and looked down while his attorney spoke on his behalf to the judge.
The teenager's father, Tom Niarhos, who is a well-known advocate for the homeless and the executive director of the Pottstown homeless agency Beacon of Hope, along with his parents and grandmother, supported him in the courtroom.
Judge William R. Carpenter set a May 17 status meeting with the lawyers in the case to schedule a hearing on Niarhos' request to move his case to juvenile court, where the potential punishments are less severe 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 how violent the incident was.
“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 moved to juvenile court, Thek will have to show the judge that Niarhos can respond to treatment in the juvenile system, considering his young age, mental health, personal history, and the nature and circumstances of the alleged incident. It also needs to be demonstrated that moving the case to juvenile court is in the public's interest.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Marvel and co-prosecutor Anne O’Connell stated they will review the defense request to move the case to juvenile court.
“Every time the defense files a motion, before we make a decision about our next steps, we need to review the motion itself, any evidence from the defense, and any expert reports. We always need to consider all the information before making a decision but I would expect that we will oppose moving the case to juvenile court,” Marvel said after the court hearing.
If a juvenile is convicted in adult court of first-degree murder, they could face several decades or even life imprisonment. First-degree murder involves intentional killing. A conviction of third-degree murder, a killing committed with malice, a hardness of heart, or recklessness of consequences, could lead to a maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in adult court.
If Niarhos' case is moved to juvenile court and the charges are proven, he could be under court supervision until he's 21. Consequences 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 must show that transferring a case to juvenile court will benefit the public and that the juvenile needs 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 decided 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 called “guilty” but are considered “adjudicated delinquent” if the charges are proven. Additionally, juvenile courts don’t follow the same sentencing guidelines used in adult criminal court.
Niarhos will remain in custody without bail until the decertification hearing and trial.
Court documents suggest 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 show 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 shouted “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. “In the end, it doesn’t matter why he believed he was entitled to take this person’s life. The evidence we will present 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 that 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 denied 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 people who saw the shooting pointed to the male victim (Hawkins), who was lying on South Hanover Street at the entrance to Security Plaza,” explained county Detective John Wittenberger and Pottstown Detective Michael Damiano in the arrest affidavit.
Witnesses also guided police to the parking lot area of the Blue Elephant Restaurant where they had held Niarhos, who they identified as the shooter.
As police arrested Niarhos, a police body camera recorded Niarhos shouting, “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 taken to Pottstown Hospital where he was declared dead. An autopsy revealed 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 seen Hawkins and Niarhos arguing and Niarhos wielding 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 try 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 found 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.
