READING (TNS) — A dozen years ago, a 34-year-old man was killed in the parking lot of a Pennsylvania diner.
And for 12 years, no one was charged with the crime. That is, until Monday — almost 12 years to the date of the killing — when the Berks County District Attorney’s Office announced that charges were filed against a New Jersey man in the death of Julio A. Torress at 3:36 a.m. March 24, 2012.
Torress was shot and killed while seated inside his vehicle in the parking lot of the West Reading Diner.
A joint investigation conducted by the West Reading Borough Police Department, the Berks County District Attorney’s Detective Unit and District Attorney’s Major Crime Task Force in May 2012 resulted in the arrest of Jomaine Case, then 22 years old.
“The investigation showed that just prior to this shooting, Case and the unknown shooter became involved in a verbal dispute with the victim in the parking lot of the diner. Shortly thereafter, the victim was shot and killed,” the Berks County District Attorney’s office, said in a news release.
In 2013, Case was found guilty of aggravated and simple assault, and he was found not guilty of murder and other charges, according to court records.
Police said there was no information uncovered during that investigation that would indicate that Torress knew his assailants. During the investigation, surveillance footage was reviewed from the diner and detectives observed that both Case and the unidentified shooter were holding Styrofoam cups just prior to the shooting. The cups were collected from the crime scene by the Berks County Forensic Services Unit, including a bitten-off piece from one of the cups.
The cups and the bitten piece were then sent to the Pennsylvania State Police Forensic Crime Laboratory for DNA analysis and an unknown man’s DNA profile was developed from the bitten-off piece of the Styrofoam cup.
This DNA didn’t match any of the samples contained within existing DNA databases at the time. An additional DNA profile, which was linked to Case was found on one of Styrofoam cups.
Police said that the investigation also revealed that the shooter was reportedly from New York City and was just visiting the Reading area on the night of the murder.
Last year, the investigation was reviewed and re-examined by the Berks County Detectives Unit and the West Reading Borough Police Department.
Police said a 2012 photograph of shooting, which was taken with a cellular phone at a party sometime before the homicide, was extracted from the cellular phone and retained by investigators.
In November investigators used facial-recognition software to assist in identifying the subject in the photo and determined that Vallis L. Slaughter, originally of Brooklyn, New York, was the person likely depicted in this photograph.
In December, police found that Slaughter was living with his mother in Jersey City, New Jersey.
On Feb. 9, 2024, surveillance units observed Slaughter walking on the sidewalk in the 200 block of Fulton Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey. Slaughter was seen smoking a cigarette. Police said that prior to entering his mother’s residence, he discarded his onto the sidewalk. The cigarette butt, which was still smoldering, was then collected by detectives, and sent to the Pennsylvania State Police Forensic Crime Laboratory for DNA comparison to the profile previously submitted from the investigation.
Earlier this month, investigators were notified by state police that the DNA extracted from the filter of the cigarette butt matched the DNA profile previously identified on the bitten piece of the Styrofoam cup that was collected from the scene.
At 6:15 a.m. Wednesday, Slaughter was taken into custody by the Jersey City Police Department at his mother’s residence. He is currently being held at the Hudson County Correctional Facility in New Jersey awaiting extradition to Berks County.
Slaughter, 39, was charged with murder of the first degree; murder of the third degree; criminal conspiracy – criminal homicide; criminal conspiracy – murder of the third degree; aggravated assault; criminal conspiracy-aggravated assault and possessing instruments of crime.
