A 35-year-old Freemansburg man has been charged with killing a man in Allentown last year, the Lehigh County District Attorney’s office announced Thursday.
According to a news release and court records, Raymond Bryan Gourgue has been charged with criminal homicide and first-degree felony Prohibited Possession of a Firearm.
“Gourgue was taken into custody Thursday morning,” the release said.
The district attorney’s office said Gourgue is charged with killing 43-year-old Allentown resident Jose Bermudez, who was found shot multiple times in the 100 block of N. Hall Street on the evening of May 14, 2021.
The office said Bermudez’s cause of death was gunshot wounds and that his death was ruled a homicide by the Lehigh County Coroner.
The district attorney’s office said the case was investigated by Det. Samson Wega of the Allentown Police Department, Det. Kevin Mriss of the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Homicide Task Force and Lehigh County’s 11th Investigating Grand Jury.
Gourgue was charged after the grand jury heard testimony from witnesses presented by Chief Deputy District Attorney Bethany S. Zampogna, the district attorney’s office said.
The news release noted that Judge Anna-Kristie Marks has sealed the grand jury’s presentment recommending the charges.
“Thus, no further facts will or can be released,” it said.
According to the criminal court docket filed in the case, Gourgue is being held in the Lehigh County Jail without bail.
A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled to be held Friday, Oct. 21 at 1:30 p.m. before District Judge Rashid Santiago.
The docket stated that Gourgue is being represented by the Lehigh County Public Defender’s office.
Note: All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. This story was compiled using information provided by the Lehigh County District Attorney’s office and from Lehigh County court records.
