Suspect in Butler homicide turns himself in Saturday
A 37-year-old Butler man said he stabbed and killed a 69-year-old man at his Butler home after planning a robbery, according to charges filed Monday, Feb, 23, by state police.
Richard Alan Swann II, 37, called police Saturday, Feb. 21, from the Cranberry Township Walmart to turn himself in about an hour after police discovered James Paul Hoover, 69, dead at his home at 416 Miller Avenue in Butler.
Swann was arrested and charged with felonies criminal homicide, robbery inflicting serious bodily injury and aggravated assault with attempts to cause serious bodily injury and misdemeanor theft by unlawful taking.
He is being held at the Butler County Prison, and has been denied bail.
According to police, Swann said he was living with Hoover at the Miller Avenue home when he decided to rob him.
Police said Swann reported confronting Hoover, saying if he cooperated, he wouldn’t harm him.
However, Hoover did not cooperate with him, according to the affidavit.
Police said Swann struck Hoover with an aluminum baseball bat and then stabbed him multiple times as he attempted to flee.
Hoover was found by police at the bottom of a set of stairs with multiple puncture wounds and injuries to his face and head.
Swann told police that Hoover had died before he left the house. He took Hoover’s phone and the bat with him, according to the affidavit.
Police were called to Hoover’s home just after 4 p.m. Saturday, after a friend hadn’t heard from him since around 9 a.m. Thursday.
According to police, Swann stayed in Cranberry Township until walking to Walmart at about 5:30 p.m. on Saturday to call 911.
Neighbors over the weekend remembered Hoover as someone who was “super nice” and a “big help.” One neighbor said he recently helped her dig her car out of the snow; another fondly remembered the conversations he had with “Jimmy.”
“It's terrible because we knew Jimmy personally. On our street … we’re all pretty close,” neighbor Dave Patton said.
Swann’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. March 2 in front of District Judge William Fullerton.
