Cranberry New Year’s Eve Partiers Charged with Firing Bullets into Homes Heading to Court

Three people charged with shooting off guns during a New Year’s Eve party in the Fernway neighborhood in Cranberry and striking at least two homes with bullets are heading to the Butler County Court of Common Pleas.

Christopher Nemit, 29, of Pittsburgh, Rachel Sherd, 28, of Cranberry, and Lucinda Jones, 34, of Finleyville, on Friday waived their preliminary hearings before District Judge David Kovach in Cranberry.

All three are charged with discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, recklessly endangering another person, criminal mischief, permitted use of firearms and disorderly conduct. Nemit also is charged with criminal conspiracy in the incident.

According to the criminal complaint filed by Cranberry Police, Nemit and Jones were at Sherd’s home on Robinhood Drive for a party Dec. 31. Nemit brought at Mossberg 12-gauge pump action shotgun and a Smith & Wesson .40 caliber pistol with him to the celebration, police said.

At midnight, several people, including Jones and Sherd, headed to the backyard of the home to fire off rounds from both guns to celebrate the New Year. Nemit assisted the women in firing the weapons, the complaint said.

Two bullets of the bullets discharged from the weapons went through Jonell Hart’s home on Sherwood Drive and another two rounds struck Renee Piroth’s home on Lincolnshire Drive. No one inside the homes were injured.

Up next, Nemit, Sherd and Jones are scheduled to be formally arraigned at 1 p.m. April 23 at the Butler County Courthouse in Butler.  

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