Thursday May 5, 2022
A Beltzhoover man pleaded guilty Wednesday to his role in
the fatal attack on a Z Trip cab driver five years ago.
Hosea Moore, 25, who cooperated with prosecutors, pleaded
guilty to robbery and conspiracy, in exchange for a count of criminal homicide
being withdrawn.
He will be sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge
Elliot Howsie on Aug. 2.
Moore was one of four men charged in the Feb. 21, 2017,
attack of Ramadhan Mohamed, a 31-year-old Somali refugee.
According to prosecutors, the four co-defendants — Moore,
Daniel Russell, King Edwards and Christen Glenn — wanted to rob someone that
night. Russell called and ordered the cab to pick him up at 2 a.m. on Climax
Street in Beltzhoover with plans to rob the driver.
When Mohamed arrived, police said, Edwards and Russell got
in the back seat to distract him, and Moore opened the driver’s side door and
punched Mohamed in the face.
Mohamed was then dragged from the car, and beaten and
kicked.
He died three days later from blunt force trauma.
Moore testified during Russell’s November 2019 trial that he
only participated in the attack on Mohamed because his friend made fun of him
for not knowing how to rob someone.
Moore told the jury that after he punched Mohamed through
the car door, but then backed away and never struck him again.
At trial, Russell, 25, was found guilty of second-degree
murder, which carries a mandatory penalty of life in prison without parole.
Edwards pleaded guilty last month to third-degree murder,
robbery and conspiracy. He was ordered to serve 19 to 38 years in state prison.
Glenn, 24, is scheduled for trial in September.