In a situation the Lehigh County district attorney called “odd” and a “matter of concern,” two Lehigh Valley men facing felony criminal homicide charges are out on bail as they await a jury trial this spring.
The alleged victim’s sister, who said she found out about bail being granted to the defendants from a police officer who investigated the case, also said she was upset and concerned that the two people charged with killing her brother are free.
But defense attorneys for Adalberto Morales-Ortiz and Axel Fontanez-Morales argue that the two never should have been charged with criminal homicide in the death of Jose Tirado-Ramirez in the first place. Citing evidence collected from the scene including surveillance footage, they contend that Tirado-Ramirez’s death was the result of a chaotic shootout between at least half a dozen people, that neither defendant fired the first shot, and that the two men acted in self-defense…