Julie Anne Taylor Wegmiller, 39, a female White/Caucasian, was killed in the early morning hours of September 30, 2023, after what first looked like a vehicle crash on River Road in Perry Township near Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. Troopers were called around 3:30 a.m. for a report that a Toyota pickup truck had gone over an embankment, but when they reached the scene, they found Julie dead inside the truck from a gunshot wound.
Her husband, Edwin Fran Wegmiller Jr., was found outside the vehicle farther down the hillside, also suffering from gunshot wounds, and he was flown to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in critical condition.
Investigators later pieced together a night that had begun away from the crash scene. According to reports citing the criminal complaint, the Wegmillers had traveled from Corry to the Ellwood City/New Castle area, where they met Yohance Tacuma Mercer-Huffman and a woman who was with him. Edwin told police that he and Julie went with the man to multiple Lawrence County bars before ending up near a residence on Wilson Avenue. Edwin said he became uneasy and told Julie they should leave. As the couple began to drive away, the man allegedly jumped into the back passenger seat of their truck, pulled a gun, and opened fire.
Edwin told investigators he was shot multiple times, and that Julie was shot once and killed instantly before the truck crashed over the hillside. Police said the truck contained a large amount of blood in the front and back seats, along with several empty cartridge casings. During Julie’s autopsy, investigators recovered a black dreadlock of hair from her hand, and Edwin had described the shooter as a man with dreadlocks. A witness from the Wilson Avenue location also told police that Julie, Edwin, and Mercer-Huffman were the only people in the truck at the time of the shooting, and that Mercer-Huffman later returned to the house saying the couple had wrecked, while carrying a pistol and appearing to have a bleeding wound on his arm.
Pennsylvania State Police identified Yohance Mercer-Huffman, then 28, as the suspect. Charges were filed against him on October 20, 2023, and police arrested him the next afternoon during a traffic stop on State Route 422 in Union Township, Lawrence County. He was taken to the Lawrence County Jail. Initial reports said he faced criminal homicide, attempted homicide or attempted criminal homicide, firearms-related charges, aggravated assault, and discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure.
At a March 2024 preliminary hearing in Lawrence County, Edwin Wegmiller testified while still recovering from nine gunshot wounds to his torso and legs. District Judge Rick Russo held Mercer-Huffman’s criminal homicide, attempted criminal homicide, and illegal possession of a gun charges for prosecution in Lawrence County Court of Common Pleas. Three other counts, two aggravated assault charges and one count of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, were withdrawn by District Attorney Joshua Lamancusa. As of the most detailed available reporting found, Mercer-Huffman had been ordered to face trial, while Julie’s death was described as the result of a sudden shooting during the couple’s attempt to leave a situation they believed had become dangerous.
