Messages left by friends at the entrance to Braxton Hall, in the 300-block of Carlisle Street.
The man accused in the murder of Rayon Braxton confessed to a knife attack in Susquehanna Township, but walked free earlier this year after contradictory testimony from witnesses, court records show.
Jerren Keith Stuckey, 26, admitted to jurors during a trial this past January that he slashed the face of a 17-year-old girl in September 2013, opening a wound that was 3 to 5 centimeters deep and possibly causing nerve damage, according to court filings.
But the stories he and the girl told contradicted each other, and there were inconsistencies between the stories of other witnesses. Stuckey was ultimately found not guilty on all counts by a Dauphin County jury.
Stuckey was arrested Wednesday night around 9:20 p.m. on charges that he fatally shot Braxton Nov. 27, in an Allison Hill warehouse space that Braxton had been operating as a community center and dance hall.
Stuckey has a history of involvement in other crimes, including a robbery conviction in 2007, according to records. PennLive has reported that he assaulted a school police officer as a juvenile in 2005 while the officer was trying to arrest his brother.
But the knife attack that went to trial earlier this year was an ambiguous case. Court transcripts show that myriad issues clouded the trial, including key witnesses who reversed their original statements to police, unresolved claims that Stuckey feared for his own safety, and a surveillance video compromised by technical problems.
The incident was apparently provoked by a comment the girl, a student at Susquehanna Township High School, had made about Stuckey at a school carnival, according to court records.
Stuckey had reportedly fallen while attempting to climb a rope ladder as part of a carnival game. The girl made a remark that she testified was innocuous, but which others said included a reference to a gang that angered Stuckey.
Two weeks later, on Sept. 8, Stuckey was in the passenger seat of a car his girlfriend was driving when they encountered the girl and four male friends at a Turkey Hill, where she was filling up her SUV with gas.
Witnesses disputed what happened next. A gas station surveillance video showed that Stuckey and his girlfriend’s car left first, followed by the girl’s SUV. But technical problems prevented the video from being shown at trial.
In any case, both cars left the Turkey Hill and drove a ways down the road before stopping. Stuckey then got out and approached the girl’s car, and according to the girl and her friends, they exchanged words before he slashed at her face.
The state initially sought a lesser form of an aggravated assault charge against Stuckey, records show. But after seeing photos of the girl’s face, Michael Rozman, the lead county prosecutor on the case, sought an elevated charge that alleged Stuckey intended to cause serious bodily injury.
Stuckey claimed in court that he had only swung his weapon, a Gerber multitool with a knife component, in his own defense. He said the girl had left her car and come at him swinging a crowbar, while one of her friends brandished a blade.
Initially, Stuckey told police he knew nothing about the incident, Rozman said. But by trial he no longer disputed that he had cut the girl. His girlfriend testified that he told her what had happened hours later, after they had fled the scene.
“He just really kept apologizing, said that’s why he don’t like being around kids,” she testified. “He told me what he had done. He told me he cut her.”
Police have released scant details so far about the homicide case against Stuckey. In a statement after his arrest, they said that he and Braxton knew each other, but withheld further information “due to the sensitivity and integrity of the case.”
Braxton’s murder sparked a vocal response from friends and neighbors, who have called for an end to the violence that has plagued their city and claimed the life of someone they saw as a leader with a vision to better his community.
The venue Braxton operated off Derry Street, in a vast facility known as the Big Ugly Warehouse, was not licensed with the city, nor did the dance parties hosted there conform to the city’s zoning regulations.
But friends say that Braxton Hall, as the venue was known, was a force for good in its community, providing a hangout for young people and an incubator for the artists, singers, dancers and fashion designers who worked and performed there.
“The cops knew we were here,” said Rich Robin, a close friend of Braxton’s who worked with him at Braxton Hall. He said the space offered a positive outlet to city youth with too much time on their hands.
“When you’re not occupying yourself with something, that basic human nature to be destructive, to just be stupid, is just more prevalent,” he said.
In a statement the week after his death, police called Braxton a “popular organizer” in Harrisburg and asked for the public’s help in solving the crime.
