Phila. DA drops charges against teen murder suspect after surveillance video proves alibi

In a case of mistaken identification, the District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday that it had dropped all charges against one of two teens charged in the July 2016 slaying of a 15-year-old who was shot over a Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood basketball tournament.

Though two witnesses identified Joshua Richardson, 17, as one of the pair involved in the July 11 shooting of Tyhir Barnes, a surveillance camera showed him in Old City at the time of the killing.

Assistant District Attorney Deborah Watson-Stokes announced the decision to Municipal Court Judge Karen Y. Simmons during what was to have been a preliminary hearing for Richardson and defendant Kywayne Hill, 19.

Simmons rescheduled Hill's preliminary hearing for March 1.

Richardson was not in court Wednesday. According to court records, he had been released on bail Jan. 24 after the mistaken identification became apparent.

Hill's attorney, Carmen C. Nasuti III, then sought bail for his client, arguing that the same two witnesses who mistakenly identified Richardson had also identified Hill.

"Just because my client wasn't lucky enough to be caught on video" was not a reason to continue keeping him in prison based on witnesses who had been proven unreliable, he said.

Simmons denied bail after Watson-Stokes said that investigators had a third witness who could identify Hill as one of those involved in the shooting.

Barnes was shot to death and two friends, ages 14 and 16, were wounded as they walked in the 6000 block of Baltimore Avenue after leaving the basketball tournament.

At the time, police said the shooting involved a dispute over a game that Barnes' team won before the tournament.