Targeted killing suspect accused of stabbing fellow inmates

Northampton County Jail (Amy Shortell/The Morning Call)

A man awaiting trial in a deadly shooting outside a Target store three years ago is accused of using a makeshift weapon to attack two fellow inmates at the Northampton County Jail.

Kevin Eugene Littles was charged Tuesday with aggravated assault and related offenses in the alleged May 29 attack.

Littles, of Harrisburg, is one of two men charged in the death of Elijah Johnson, 20, who was shot during what authorities described as a drug deal that turned into an attempted flight.

Littles, 24, is accused of being the perpetrator in the August 8, 2021 shooting, which occurred in the busy Target store parking lot in Lower Nazareth Township. He was charged along with another Harrisburg man, Jakiye Taylor.

An arrest affidavit in the jail stabbing, which appears to describe surveillance video of the incident, gives this account:

Littles, holding an object in his hand, left his cell and “aggressively” approached inmate Michael Matas, who retreated to his own cell.

Littles entered the cell, followed by Matas' cellmate, Anthony Santiago. Raising the gun above his head, Littles chased Santiago from the cell. Matas came out of the cell and was confronted by Littles, who attempted to punch him eight times in the head and face.

Matas retreated to his cell and Littles then attacked Santiago again, hitting or attempting to hit him at least eight times in the head and back.

Littles was arrested by prison guards, who found the object Littles was holding on the ground near a trash can: a threaded bolt with a sharp point wrapped in cellophane.

Matas and Santiago were treated for puncture wounds to the head. Santiago also had puncture wounds to his back and Matas had a laceration to his left cheek.

Littles' next court action in the homicide case is a pretrial conference scheduled for October.