PITTSBURGH -- The Allegheny County district attorney is examining jail phone calls and court records to determine whether a police detective did anything wrong when he discussed a homicide case with a defendant.

The allegations came to light Wednesday at a county court hearing on evidence in the upcoming trial of Joseph Hall, 19, of Penn Hills.

A prosecutor has tape recordings of Pittsburgh police Detective Talib Ghafoor speaking by phone to Hall at the county jail.

In the calls, Ghafoor tells Hall the evidence is weak and that officials "will pay for every second you're in here."

Ghafoor acknowledged being "aligned" with the defendant in testimony Wednesday, saying he is a friend of Hall's mother.

A judge will rule Thursday on whether new evidence Hall believes will clear him is admissible at trial.

Hall and a co-defendant -- Lamont Hall, 20, of East Liberty -- are accused of killing James Stubbs, 17, in a drive-by shooting near Westinghouse High School in 2006. The two suspects are not related.

Ghafoor said he learned from a police officer who responded to the shooting that witnesses said Stubbs was shot by a man on foot -- not in a vehicle, as prosecutors are saying.

"I believe both men are innocent," Ghafoor testified at the evidence hearing.

But the officer denied Ghafoor's claim and testified that he told Ghafoor about a different shooting, according to a report by WTAE Channel 4's news exchange partner, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

The officer also testified that no witnesses at the Stubbs shooting ever said the boy was shot by a man on foot.

It's not yet clear if this matter will affect the trial, which has already been pushed back once.

In June, Pittsburgh Public Schools police Cmdr. Joseph Garrett had a stroke on the witness stand, prompting Judge David Cashman to declare a mistrial and reschedule for Oct. 14.

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