By LOU SESSINGER, The Intelligencer

PHILADELPHIA — An Ethiopian immigrant awaiting trial in an 8-year-old murder case in Towamencin was in Montgomery County Court on Wednesday as his lawyer attempted to have evidence against him suppressed for use at trial.

Yeshtila A. Ameshe, a former gas station attendant from Adelphi, Md., faces charges that include first- and third-degree murder in the shooting death of his aunt, Haregewene Bitew, inside her Dock Village apartment on the night of June 27, 2000.

The woman was reported to have been counseling Ameshe, 34, about a problem with his girlfriend shortly before the shooting.

Pennsylvania State Police arrested Ameshe that same night at the Mid-County Interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Plymouth Township.

He had been undergoing psychiatric treatment at Norristown State Hospital until March of this year when Montgomery County Judge S. Gerald Corso declared him competent to stand trial.

At an evidentiary hearing Wednesday before Corso, Ameshe’s court-appointed lawyer, Scott Krieger, challenged two “issues” of evidence that could be used against his client at trial and sought to have them thrown out.

One had to do with a state trooper’s discovery of a 9mm semiautomatic handgun and accessories in Ameshe’s car at the time of his arrest. The other had to do with statements Ameshe made to Montgomery County detectives who questioned him at the Towamencin Police Department following his arrest.

Deputy District Attorney Christopher Maloney, who is prosecuting the case, called three witnesses at Wednesday’s hearing, including county Detective James McGowan and retired county Detective Phil Ridge — both of whom had interviewed Ameshe and read him his rights in the hours after the slaying.

Maloney, who was first to speak with Ameshe, wrote an account of their conversation that Ameshe refused to sign. Several hours later, Ridge took what he called a “supplemental statement” which the suspect did sign.

Krieger’s cross-examination of the two detectives focused on the reading of one’s constitutional rights, the necessity of Ridge’s supplemental statement and the reason for McGowan’s obtaining a search warrant for Ameshe’s car since the murder weapon, a magazine for it and bullets had already been taken from the vehicle.

Retired state police Trooper Jeffrey White testified about apprehending Ameshe at gunpoint at the turnpike toll plaza after the suspect’s car and another car collided there.

White also testified that another state trooper, Gennaro Mitchell, found a magazine for 9mm bullets in Ameshe’s car and also a 9mm handgun in a backpack inside the car.

Krieger’s cross-examination honed in on the position of the magazine and backpack in the car, suggesting that they might not have been in plain view and thus not legally permitted to be searched or seized without a warrant.

Judge Corso adjourned the hearing until 2 p.m. on Tuesday so that Mitchell can testify.

Ameshe is being held without bail in Montgomery County’s prison. His trial is scheduled to begin July 14.

Lou Sessinger can be contacted at 215-345-3050 or [email protected].