Published: June 24, 2009 11:24 pm      

Security to be tight for double murder hearing

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Tight security will be in place for the preliminary hearing of a former Johnstown man charged in the April shooting deaths of a retired Vinco insurance agent and a high school senior.

The hearing for Nicholas Adam Horner will be held Friday before District Judge Steven Jackson. But rather than at Jackson’s Canan Station office, the proceeding will take place at the Blair County Courthouse, officials said Wednesday,

“We have had threats made against (Horner),” county Sheriff Larry Field said in explaining the change of location. “This way we can pick him up at the prison and take him right up to the courthouse.”

Horner, 28, a 1999 graduate of Conemaugh Valley High School, is accused of gunning down Ray Williams, 64, a longtime Cambria County insurance agent and resident of Northern Cambria Borough.

Williams, who recently had moved to the Altoona area, was standing at a bank of mailboxes outside his apartment complex when he was shot.

Minutes earlier, police say, Horner had entered the back door of the Subway sandwich shop near Logan Valley Mall, where he shot and killed Scott Garlick, a Hollidaysburg High School senior who worked part time at the restaurant.

A female worker at Subway was wounded.

The sheriff said his greatest concern is with members of the public coming to the hearing.

“It will be much more secure,” Field said.

“Anyone coming to the courthouse will be searched before they get in.”

Horner, who served two tours in Iraq and one in Kuwait, maintains he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his eight years of service in the Army.

Horner underwent a court-ordered mental examination to determine if he has the ability to comprehend that he is accused of crimes and can participate in his defense.