Alleged parking lot shooter pleads not guilty to attempted homicide charge

Nov. 21—WILKES-BARRE — A New York City man accused by Pennsylvania State Police at Wilkes-Barre in the shooting of a woman outside a nail salon business entered a not guilty plea to attempted criminal homicide related offenses Tuesday.

Christopher Nelson Carmona, 38, of Manhattan, entered the plea through his attorney, Demetrius Fannick, during his formal arraignment before Luzerne County Judge Joseph F. Sklarosky Jr.

Sklarosky said he will schedule a trial date for Carmona at a later time.

State police alleged Carmona shot Alyssa Bulford twice in her lower back outside Envy Nail Salon in the Pittston Crossing shopping plaza on state Route 315 on June 2, 2022.

During Bulford's testimony at Carmona's preliminary hearing before District Judge Alexandra Kokura Kravitz in Pittston on Oct. 3, she testified she exited the nail salon and encountered a stranger removing stickers from the rear window of her vehicle.

Bulford testified she asked the man several times what he was doing. Bulford said she turned around and was shot twice in her lower back, causing her to collapse onto the ground.

Video footage in the shopping plaza recovered by state police investigators showed Carmona inside Walmart purchasing items and loitering in the parking lot near the nail salon business prior to the shooting, according to preliminary hearing testimony and court records.

Carmona was apprehended hours later along Route 315.

A search of a wooded area near the shopping plaza by investigators uncovered a 9mm semi-automatic handgun wrapped in a bandanna.

Ballistics tests showed the 9mm matched tool markings on 9mm shell casings recovered from the scene of the shooting, testified State Police Lieutenant Derrick Felsman at the preliminary hearing.

Carmona remains jailed without bail at the county correctional facility.

In addition to the attempted homicide offense, Carmona is also charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, illegal possession of a firearm and two counts of simple assault.