Woman accused of hiding gun that killed New Kensington cop says she suffers from PTSD

A woman charged with disposing of the weapon that police say was used to kill New Kensington police Officer Brian Shaw claims she could not have done so because she is afraid to enter basements.

In court documents filed Monday, the lawyer for Lisa Danea Harrington, 33, of New Kensington claims she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder related to physical abuse she endured as a child while locked in a basement.

“This repeated abuse has left Ms. Harrington with an immense fear of basements to the point that she has not entered one since she was a child,” wrote defense attorney Adam Gorzelsky.

Harrington originally was charged with hindering the apprehension of the man accused in Shaw’s murder. Police said Harrington helped the suspected shooter, her cousin Rahmael Holt, avoid capture by lying to police about his whereabouts in the hours after Shaw was gunned down following a November 2017 traffic stop in New Kensington.

Holt, 31, of Harrison was convicted in December of first-degree murder, and a Westmoreland County jury found he should be sentenced to death. A hearing in which he will be formally condemned to die by lethal injection is scheduled for Feb. 12.

According to testimony from his trial, prosecutors said Holt hid the murder weapon in the basement of a home occupied by a friend hours after the fatal shooting. That friend, Lakita Caine, told police Harrington retrieved a package from the basement and left the home. In December, after Holt’s trial and conviction, additional charges were filed against Harrington accusing her of disposing of the murder weapon.

Gorzelsky said Harrington claimed as a child she and other children were forced into a basement as punishment and beaten if they came upstairs without permission. In court documents, he said Harrington was disciplined at least 50 times in that manner over a four- to five-year period when she was a child.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway, at Gorzelsky’s request, agreed to allow Harrington to be evaluated for PTSD or other psychological disorders relating to abuse suffered as a child.