On a summer evening in Bristol, Pennsylvania, the life of 29-year-old Joshua Johnson was violently cut short. On July 8, 2014, three men burst into Johnson's home on Winder Drive in what prosecutors would later describe as a drug-related home invasion robbery. Johnson, who was in a wheelchair, was at home with two other men, Tyrone Moss, 31, and Lamel Duffy, 26, when the assailants entered.
The intruders, who referred to each other by numbers, threw Johnson from his wheelchair to the floor.
The intruders bound Duffy with zip ties, pistol-whipped him, and burned him with a heated object before stealing a ring, a watch, and cash. After the robbery, one of the assailants chillingly announced, 'it's flat-line time.'. Both Johnson and Moss were shot in the head. Duffy was also shot in the head and back but managed to escape to a neighbor's house to call for help. When police arrived, they found Moss deceased at the scene. Johnson was rushed to the hospital, where he died from his injuries the following day.
The investigation into the brutal slayings led authorities to three suspects: Eric Dillard Jr., Demetrius Antonio Baker, and Anthony King. An intelligence analyst with the Pennsylvania National Guard was able to trace the suspects' cell phones to the scene of the crime and back to Philadelphia. In January 2016, Baker was arrested, and Dillard was charged the following month. The third suspect, King, was killed in Philadelphia a month after the murders.
In August 2017, Eric Dillard Jr. was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Johnson and Moss. He was also found guilty of the attempted murder of Lamel Duffy, as well as multiple counts of robbery and burglary. Demetrius Antonio Baker, who testified against Dillard, pleaded guilty to his role in the home invasion and was sentenced in December 2017 to 10 to 20 years in prison as part of a plea agreement. Baker told the court that the motive for the robbery was the belief that Johnson had a significant amount of marijuana and up to $30,000 in cash in his home. He testified that King was the one who shot all three victims because they could identify him.
