Jailhouse informants said to be key to charge in Northview Heights homicide case

It took Pittsburgh police detectives nearly a year after interviewing Samuel Mitchell to charge him with killing “Big Mike” Wilson in Northview Heights in May 2014.

At the opening of Mitchell's trial Monday, his defense attorney said investigators' big break came from a pair of jailhouse informants and a witness at the scene who later changed her story.

“Two people who would do or say anything to benefit themselves made up this story,” said Ryan James, attorney for Mitchell, 22, of Hazelwood.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Berquist told the jury in the courtroom of Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward Borkowski that surveillance videos from the Northview Heights housing complex showed Wilson's slaying, and a witness tentatively identified Mitchell as the shooter. It took a tip from a jailhouse informant that Mitchell had talked about the shooting before police could charge him.

“Many of the commonwealth's witnesses have criminal histories,” Berquist said. “You're probably not going to like them very much, but you need to listen to what they have to say.”

James countered in his opening that the identifying feature of the shooter on the surveillance video was his white pants. But other video of the complex on May 3, 2014, showed several men in white pants.

After a witness identified Mitchell as the shooter, he told police that he had left Northview Heights with his mother before the shooting, and he was released without being charged, James said. The witness who said she had seen Mitchell getting Wilson's attention just before the shooting recanted at his preliminary hearing in September.

Witness testimony was scheduled to continue Tuesday.

Matthew Santoni is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412 391 0927 or msantoni@tribweb.com.