NEW CASTLE — A May 7 formal arraignment date is set in Lawrence County for a 28-year-old man accused of killing a Corry woman and wounding her husband in a shooting inside the couple’s pickup truck in New Castle in September.

Yohance Mercer-Huffman Jr. was held for court March 7 on criminal homicide, attempted homicide and possession of a firearm prohibited in the Sept. 30 shooting that killed Julie A. Wegmiller, 39, and wounded her husband, Edwin F. Wegmiller Jr., 40.

More: Police launch homicide probe after Corry woman killed, husband wounded, in Lawrence County

Lawrence County District Attorney Joshua Lamancusa said he presented testimony from Edwin Wegmiller and from the investigating Pennsylvania State Police trooper who charged Mercer-Huffman at the March 7 preliminary hearing in New Castle. Two counts of aggravated assault and a felony count of discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure were dropped at the hearing.

Mercer-Huffman remains in the Lawrence County Prison without bond.

State police accuse Mercer-Huffman of shooting the Wegmillers on the early morning of Sept. 30. Julie Wegmiller was found dead inside a Toyota pickup truck and Edwin Wegmiller was found outside the truck down an embankment after troopers were called to River Road at Butler Avenue in Perry Township, Lawrence County, to investigate a report of a vehicle over a hillside, state police reported.

State police wrote in the criminal complaint against Mercer-Huffman that a witness reported seeing Mercer-Huffman jump into the Wegmillers’ truck shortly before the shooting. The witness heard a loud noise before Mercer-Huffman walked back to a house where the pickup truck had been parked before it left. The witness said Mercer-Huffman, who had a pistol in his hand, said the Wegmillers wrecked their truck, according to information in the complaint.

More: Corry woman was clutching a dreadlock when she was shot to death. Clue led to the suspect

Investigators also wrote that Edwin Wegmiller told police he had given a male with dreadlocks a ride and was shot. A dreadlock was found in Julie Wegmiller’s hand during autopsy, and state police said they confirmed that Mercer-Huffman was wearing dreadlocks through surveillance video from businesses in Lawrence County on and before the day of the shooting.

Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Man facing trial in fatal shooting of Corry woman in Lawrence County