Calvin Jay Huffman (left inset) paid Antonyo Owens (middle inset) in money and drugs to kill Anthony Jones (right inset). (Screenshot of the crime scene: CBS Pittsburgh; mug shot of Huffman: Bedford County; image of Owens: SCI Camp Hill; image of Jones: his obituary)
More than a year after a 14-year-old boy allegedly shot and killed a Pennsylvania man, prosecutors announced a criminal case against the suspected mastermind.
Calvin Jay Huffman, 38, is accused of hiring Antonyo Owens, then 14, to take the life of Anthony Jones, 38, in a solicitation to commit murder case that authorities allege was motivated by “revenge” and funded in part by drugs.
“We are alleging that at the time of Anthony Jones’ murder, Huffman was in a dispute with the victim over narcotics and paid Owens a significant amount of money and drugs to exact Huffman’s revenge against the victim,” Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele said in a press conference covered by CBS Pittsburgh.
Prosecutors additionally said their office “will be filing a notice of aggravating circumstances against the Defendant, and if he is convicted, we will be seeking the death penalty.”
Authorities claim Huffman gave the teenager $5,000 in cash and three large bags of marijuana, according to the Observer Reporter.
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As authorities already said, Owens gunned down Jones near Cavalry Methodist Church in Uniontown at around 11:30 a.m. on June 6, 2023. Authorities arrested the teenager after five days. Now prosecutors say that Huffman had allegedly paid other people in money and drugs to hide Owens from law enforcement. The teen, charged as an adult, faces a count of criminal homicide.
A person authorities did not identify allegedly stepped forward in March 2024 with digital evidence purportedly showing that Owens received payment in money and drugs to commit the killing. DA Aubele said troopers used further evidence, including other witness statements, cell phone data, and geolocation.
Investigators did not have to go far to track down Huffman. He was locked up in the Bedford County Correctional Facility since April because he allegedly kidnapped a Good Samaritan who stepped in to help after Huffman crashed a vehicle.
Huffman, who was convicted in a 2011 case for shooting a woman outside a bar, said he did not want to go back to jail and made the good Samaritan drive around, authorities said. The driver managed to get to safety after the defendant left the truck at a Sheetz convenience store in Everett Borough, authorities said, according to the Observer Reporter.
Huffman, however, allegedly attacked other people, and was later charged with attacking another inmate while in jail.
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