A jury last week took less than two hours — including lunch — to acquit a Crafton man charged with shooting a McDonald’s worker in 2015.

The jury’s quick work, Raymon Brown’s attorney said, reflected that the prosecution had a lousy case — one that started with quadruple hearsay from an anonymous informant after a television reporter publicized the case and ended with a jailhouse snitch and a questionable identification by the victim.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Brown’s attorney, William Difenderfer.

Mr. Difenderfer noted that the victim initially could not identify his client from a photo array and did so only after she saw the suspect in handcuffs and a red Allegheny County Jail uniform being paraded across her television screen.

KDKA-TV reporter Marty Griffin had collected a $5,000 reward that went to an anonymous informant, who gave police a statement about Brown based on information he got from the street. The money was paid to the informant before the case went to trial.

But Assistant District Attorney Matt Wholey, who is taking a leave from the office to run for a magisterial district judge seat in Squirrel Hill, told the jury that the victim did identify Brown — once she saw him on TV, again at his preliminary hearing and once again at trial.

According to Pittsburgh police, Denise Golden was walking home along Brownsville Road after she got off work at the Mount Oliver McDonald’s at 12:36 a.m. July 20, 2015.

She said two men approached her, and she was shot in the chest. Police at the time said they believed it was a random shooting.

For several weeks, detectives had no leads. They knew no reason why anyone would have targeted Ms. Golden, and they had only low-quality surveillance video from the street that shows two men passing Ms. Golden, and then turning to follow her. They released the video to the public but got no tips.

The detectives then contacted Mr. Griffin to see whether he could drum up interest in the case and maybe even solicit donations for a reward, said Pittsburgh police homicide Detective George Satler in an interview after the trial concluded. He is currently on leave from the police bureau to run for Allegheny County sheriff.

Mr. Griffin did a news story Sept. 1, 2015, and quickly raised the reward money from two businesses. Posters offering the reward money were tacked up, and a person soon came forward.

That person, who told police he wanted to remain anonymous, gave detectives a nickname for the assailant, “Shooter Poo,” which they traced back to Brown.

But according to a supplemental police report obtained by the Post-Gazette, the informant said he had “no first-hand knowledge” about the shooting. He “stated that he was not a witness to this incident and did not know ‘Shooter Poo’ personally. This male learned this information third or fourth hand [a person who told a person who told a person] because Shooter Poo was bragging on the street about doing this shooting.”

Detectives put together a photo array including Brown’s picture to show Ms. Golden. But she could not pick him out of the lineup, according to court testimony.

The case went cold until Sept. 15, 2015, when William Haddad, who was facing robbery and burglary charges, told police he had information about the Golden shooting. Haddad told detectives — much like the anonymous caller seeking the reward money — that “Shooter Poo,” whom he knew to be Brown, along with another man were the shooters.

Haddad told police that Shooter Poo had been bragging about shooting the woman. When Haddad expressed disbelief, Brown told him to “go check out the poster at the Metro PCS [store.]”

Haddad told police he went to the store a short time later and saw the poster.

Brown was arrested in late September 2015, along with the second man. But the second man had long hair, and the two suspects in the Golden shooting had short hair, so he was released. Brown remained in custody.

When Ms. Golden saw Brown on TV, she told her common-law husband, “‘That’s the guy who shot me,’” Detective Satler said.

Brown was tried on charges of aggravated assault, conspiracy and a firearms count before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani. Haddad was called to testify, but immediately pleaded the Fifth Amendment to protect himself against self-incrimination.

The tipster, who was paid before the case went to trial, did not testify, either, and the jury heard nothing about him because it was hearsay.

“This guy would have never called if he had to testify,” Detective Satler said in the interview. “My terms were, I want to be able to solve this case. I want to make sure we get the right guy. People are motivated by money.”

Mr. Griffin did not return a message seeking comment.

Mike Manko, a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office, would not comment on the reward offered in the case.

“We were comfortable and confident moving forward with this case because we had a positive identification of the defendant by a credible victim, an identification she reiterated during the trial.”

But Mr. Difenderfer views the case in an entirely different light.

“They very possibly could have convicted an innocent man.”

Paula Reed Ward: pward@post-gazette.com, 412-263-2620 or on Twitter: @PaulaReedWard.

First Published: March 7, 2017, 5:00 a.m.