The general purpose of the status conference is to determine the likely disposition of the assigned case prior to the pretrial conference.
A status conference is scheduled Tuesday for a Perkiomen Township man accused of shooting his mother and brother to death in September 2023 in his Gravel Pike home.
Aaron Eslie Deshong, 50, of the 700 block of Gravel Pike, is scheduled for jury trial in November to answer for charges of first- and third-degree murder.
However, according to Pennsylvania law, a status conference is scheduled to determine the likely disposition of a case prior to the Pretrial conference.
According to law, on Tuesday, parties involved will provide to a judge whether the case is scheduled, or will be scheduled, for a guilty plea or Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition; whether all discovery has been
provided in accordance with the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure; whether all Pretrial motions have been timely filed; and any additional information necessary for the court to complete the Status Conference Order.
Deshong, will have a miscellaneous hearing on Nov. 4 at at 9:30 a.m. in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. Then, jury selection for his trial starts on Nov. 18, per court documents.
The trial would last four days, per Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge William R. Carpenter.
Carpenter also appointed lawyer Gregory DiPippo, of King of Prussia, to represent Deshong.
Life imprisonment is mandatory with a first-degree murder conviction, which means the crime was intentional.
Deshong faces 20 to 40 years in prison on the third-degree murder charge, which implies he killed with malice (hate) or cruelty.
Deshong is accused of shooting his mother, Wanda, and his brother, Adam, 53, of Devon, Chester County, on Sept. 24, 2023, during a domestic abuse incident, police said.
According to the Montgomery County District Attorney, on the day of the homicides, at 5:02 p.m., Pennsylvania State Police responded to Deshong’s home after a male placed a call to an FBI Threat Assessment Center and indicated that he may have hurt his family members.
The FBI relayed the information to Pennsylvania State Police at Skippack, and troopers were dispatched. Police arrived on scene while the caller, later identified as Deshong, was still on the phone with the FBI, authorities said.
Deshong was detained by police, before they entered the home to find a Wanda and Adam Deshong dead in the kitchen, police said.
A Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver, registered to the defendant, was found in the defendant’s basement bedroom closet. The revolver had four spent shell casings in the cylinder as well as two live rounds, police said.
Autopsies on Wanda and Adam Deshong were conducted by Dr. Khalil Wardak of the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, who determined Wanda Deshong died of a gunshot wound to the head, and Adam Deshong died of multiple gunshot wounds, police said, with the manner being homicide for both.
Deshong remains at Montgomery County jail with no bail, pending trial.
