Crime briefs: Man accused in after-hours shooting

A Homestead man will face trial on a charge of criminal homicide in the shooting death of his friend in a South Side after-hours club earlier this month.

James Barna, 18, told Pittsburgh homicide detectives that he and his friend, Robert Hinish, 26, also of Homestead, were fighting with others inside Club 25 on East Carson Street about 5 a.m. on May 11 when the fatal shooting occurred, Detective Patrick Moffatt testified on Wednesday.

Barna said a two-shot Derringer-style pistol he was carrying fell out of his pocket during the fight, Moffatt said during yesterday's hearing in the Allegheny County Coroner's office. When he picked it up, someone tried to grab the gun and it fired, he said. A bullet struck Hinish in the chest, killing him.

Coroner's Solicitor Timothy Uhrich said the shooting bordered on being an accident, but ordered a trial for Barna based on the testimony.

Police investigate home invasion

Pittsburgh police were trying to sort out the details Wednesday night of a midafternoon home-invasion robbery in the East Hills, during which a man was shot in the rear.

Police were called to an apartment on the 2300 block of East Hills Drive about 1:45 p.m. yesterday, where they found Craig Jones, 33, suffering from two gunshot wounds to his buttocks and upper thigh.

Paramedics took him to UPMC-Presbyterian hospital, Oakland, in good condition. Two women and a baby who were also in the apartment were not harmed, police said.

Witnesses told police that two unknown men wearing masks forced their way into the apartment and began demanding money and ransacking the home, investigators reported. Jones tried to grab a gun one of the assailants was carrying and during a struggle the weapon went off as many as six times, police said.

The masked men ran from the apartment without getting any money, police said. They were still interviewing witnesses and Jones last night to get a better description of the attackers.