A preliminary hearing for a Pittsburgh man charged with shooting a Robinson Township motel clerk to death in October has been postponed for a third time.
The hearing for Stanley Eugene West Jr., charged with homicide in the fatal shooting of Rakesh Bhagavan, originally was scheduled for Oct. 24 and then continued to Nov. 14.
However, the hearing, which will determine if West must stand trial in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court on the homicide charge and several other charges, was continued to 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 19, in Pittsburgh Municipal Court.
That didn’t happen, though, as the hearing was continued to March 25, 2026.
West, 37, was charged with criminal homicide, attempted homicide and recklessly endangering another person following the Oct. 3 incident, which unfolded at the Pittsburgh Motel on Steubenville Pike and ended 15 miles away in a shootout with law enforcement.
A second criminal complaint was later filed against West, charging him with two counts of attempted criminal homicide tied to the shootout with police as well as two counts of assault of a law enforcement officer and two counts of aggravated assault.
West, who is being held in the county jail after bail was denied, is accused of gunning down Bhagavan when the latter was standing outside his office following an earlier shooting inside the motel parking lot. According to a criminal complaint, West shot inside a car occupied by a woman and her child while the woman was attempting to flee from the motel parking lot.
The woman made it out of the parking lot and drove to a nearby business seeking medical help, and she was taken to Presbyterian Hospital for treatment. Her child was not injured.
A spokesperson for the county district attorney’s office said earlier that the two cases involving West would not be consolidated because of the different locations and the time difference between the two events that took place on Oct. 3.
However, one preliminary hearing will occur on March 25 and the judge will hear testimony on both cases at the same hearing.
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