Employee Anthony White strolled into the halls of Cumberland County Prison on August 24, 2023, talking with prison authorities, prepared to provide a colorfully obscene testimony when it came time to identify the murderer of the owner of GQ Barbershop in Carlisle.
White went on to argue with the defendant’s lawyer, using foul language and telling him that he had a (crap) job defending Baltimore.
More significantly, however, White named 47-year-old Michael Baltimore as the shooter who, on May 22, 2021, shot him twice and killed his best friend, Kendall Cook, in front of him.
But White will never testify in court.The Cumberland County Coroner’s Office reports that White was killed in a homicide last summer. According to the results of the death inquiry, he passed away in June 2024 at his Mechanicsburg residence on East Clover Street from acute fentanyl poisoning.
The death investigation report states that White’s fentanyl was laced with a disproportionate amount of horse tranquilizer. White’s toxicology result states that he had 5.8 ng/mL of fentanyl, which is over twice the deadly dosage, and 59 ng/mL of xylazine in his blood.
Investigators discovered a white powdery material on a mirror on the coffee table near to White’s body in his living room, as well as inside a plastic bag.
In his death investigation, deputy coroner Jeremy Maugans stated that White was autopsied by the coroner’s office due to his involvement in an ongoing criminal case and the circumstances surrounding his death.
Employees of the Cumberland County Coroner’s Office informed PennLive Tuesday morning that drug deliveries that result in death are not always considered homicides.
However, Cumberland County Coroner Charley Hall believes someone attempted to kill White due to the high level of fentanyl in the man’s system, a deputy coroner stated on Tuesday.
After a neighbor reported that White had not been seen for a few days, White’s landlord discovered him face down in his living room, near to his coffee table, on June 3. He had an injury on the left side of his forehead.
Deputies discovered several smoking devices and several jars of a green leafy substance in addition to the white powder.
On the morning of May 31, White’s brother, Thomas White, last saw him. They often went to the gym to work out together.
Two witnesses, including Anthony White, named Michael Baltimore as the shooter who killed Cook at his barbershop.
White stated in his testimony at the preliminary hearing for Baltimore in August 2023 that he had been cutting hair in the barbershop for the majority of the day before Cook and Tarrin Britton showed up. White stopped accepting walk-in appointments and instead hung out around the business when Cook brought up the bill he was attempting to pay.
White claimed to have received a call from a man who wanted to pay Cook $50 for a haircut with two other people. Cook said he would remain extra to collect the $20 to $25 haircut that was the standard at the salon.
The three men kept texting and calling, delaying the haircut until Britton finally requested one at approximately 7:15 p.m.
He had waited all day for these people to have haircuts, and he was a (expletive) weirdo? Cook was faithful to his longtime friend, White explained, adding that he had never liked Britton.
Cook yelled, “Mike!” while Britton was getting his hair done. White thought that was strange. Baltimore used to work at the barbershop, but it had been months since anyone had seen him.
The gunfire started at that point. Before being shot in the back, White claimed to have run down the rear hall toward the exit. He fell to the ground after being shot, and the man he recognized as Baltimore sprinted by him to get away.
“It felt like I was struck by a sledgehammer when I opened the door,” White claimed. I believed I tripped and didn’t realize I had been shot since it felt like a thousand pounds on my chest.
White was constantly reminded to consider his daughter by a neighbor who stood above him.
White clarified that he recognized the masked man as Baltimore based on his posture, body, and gait, whereas Britton and White claimed they could tell it was Baltimore based on his eyes.
Do you have any doubts that Michael Baltimore was the shooter? Former Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office prosecutor Nicole Vito questioned White.
“No, no,” White responded, glaring at Baltimore with disdain from the other side of the courtroom.
Charges of first-degree murder have been brought against Baltimore, and prosecutors are pushing for the death sentence. However, as prosecutors navigate a delicate recusal dispute with Cumberland County President Judge Ed Guido, his case is in purgatory.