In August 2023, six Coatesville men armed themselves with illegal guns, piled into a stolen SUV and trawled the city, hunting a criminal rival. Their revenge plot failed — the intended target survived, and one of the gunmen took a fatal shot to the back, killed accidentally by one of his friends.
Nearly three years later, two of those conspirators were convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder in a late-night verdict handed down by a Chester County jury.
Victor Lara-Ortiz and Zaire Harley, both 22, were also found guilty of conspiracy and aggravated assault in the death of Dametrius “Meechie” McClain-Jackson, a former Coatesville Area Senior High School football star.
Their convictions carry mandatory life sentences, and they will face Chester County Judge Alita Rovito for sentencing in the coming weeks.
During the pair’s weeklong trial, prosecutors said they were willing participants in the August 23, 2023 plot to attack Elijah Green, and were culpable for McClain-Jackson’s death under the legal principle of transferred intent.
The group’s animosity toward Green began on Instagram, after he posted a video taking credit for a shooting weeks earlier that wounded Harley and another man, and taunted them for not retaliating.
The four other suspects involved in the fatal shooting: Markel Jones, 23, Richard Rochester-Cottle, 24, Quadir Lavender, 18, and Gary White, 22, pleaded guilty for their roles in the months leading up to the trial and are awaiting sentencing. Two of those pleas, from Rochester-Cottle and White, were to third-degree murder.
All four testified for the prosecution during the trial, making it clear that Lara-Ortiz and Harley helped plan and carry out the shooting. Rochester-Cottle specifically placed Lara-Ortiz at the scene as one of the gunmen, and said McClain-Jackson, the victim, yelled out “Vic, you shot me,” as the group fled.
Attorneys for Lara-Ortiz and Harley sharply rebuked this testimony, saying in their closing arguments that all four men were eager to pass blame onto their clients in order to save themselves. They urged jurors to not believe their version of events, saying they were inconsistent and unreliable.
“This was a deeply, heavily flawed story told by witnesses who have a vested interest in the fates of these two men,” said Stephen Dodd, who represents Lara-Ortiz. “These four people who pleaded guilty are pointing fingers at two people who could save them and take first-degree murder off the table.”
Dodd and Harley’s attorney, Evan Hughes, conceded that while the two men were present when the shooting took place, they had no intention of killing anyone, and were not part of the conspiracy to attack Green.
Apparently, jurors were not swayed.
In a statement Wednesday, Chester County District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe said he was grateful that the jury worked to hold Lara-Ortiz and Harley accountable.
“These two defendants tried to assassinate a rival and ended up killing one of their own,” he said. “They are responsible for every bullet their group shot that night.”
The group rode together Aug. 23, 2023 in a Chevrolet Traverse that Rochester-Cottle had stolen from a Sheetz in Berks County in search of Green, according to testimony. The car’s owner had left it running while inside the gas station, and had left his loaded .308 handgun inside the vehicle. That gun, witnesses told police, would later be used by Lara-Ortiz during the shooting.
After meeting at a house on Union Avenue to plan the shooting, the group armed themselves with the stolen .380 handgun, as well as a Glock pistol, a .30 caliber handgun, and a .22 rifle. Those guns were never recovered by police, and it was unclear which one fired the shot that killed McClain-Jackson.
With Harley at the wheel of the stolen Traverse and Lara-Ortiz navigating, they took a circuitous route throughout Coatesville — prosecutors said they were stalking Green, checking various places around they city he was known to frequent.
When the group saw Green and his friends in the driveway of a home on Community Lane, Lara-Ortiz, McClain-Jackson, Rochester-Cottle, and White got out of the vehicle and opened fire, prosecutors said.
Five of the suspects fled the scene, leaving the stolen Traverse, and McClain-Jackson, behind. Medics transported the wounded man to Paoli Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed he had been shot once in the back, and that the bullet had hit his lungs.
Lara-Ortiz’s involvement in the crime came just months after expressing remorse to a county judge in connection with the death of his 4-year-old brother, who fatally shot himself with a loaded gun Lara-Ortiz left on his nightstand.
During his sentencing for involuntary manslaughter, Lara-Ortiz pledged to change his ways and work on improving his life.