NORRISTOWN — A Philadelphia man was convicted of charges he staged and fabricated a shooting in a Cheltenham Township park and framed an ex-girlfriend for it, two years after he falsely accused her of similar allegations in Philadelphia.
Harold Leo Cost II, 32, of the 2500 block of North Colorado Street, was convicted in Montgomery County Court of charges of false reports to incriminate another person, tampering with physical evidence and false alarm to an agency of public safety in connection with two incidents that occurred between November 2023 and April 2025 in Philadelphia and Cheltenham Township.
The jury acquitted Cost of several conspiracy-related charges.
The jury of six men and six women deliberated about seven hours before reaching the verdict.
After the verdict was announced, Cost decided to plead guilty to an additional charge of person not to possess a firearm, a charge that was not considered by the jury. With that charge, prosecutors alleged Cost had a prior conviction for robbery that prohibited him from possessing a firearm.
Cost then accepted a sentencing agreement under which Judge Thomas M. DelRicci sentenced Cost on Thursday to 2 to 6 years in prison for all the charges.
Harold Leo Cost II (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. – MediaNews Group)
Cost did not comment about his conviction or the sentencing agreement as sheriff’s deputies took him into custody to begin serving the sentence.
“The jury found that Harold Cost set his ex-girlfriend up twice — once in 2023 in Philadelphia and once in Cheltenham in 2025,” said Assistant District Attorney Blair Rohlfing. “It absolutely had an effect on her and the way in which she lives her life, her sense of safety.”
Prosecutors theorized Cost’s motive behind the frame-up was to gain custody of a child that he shared with the woman.
Rohlfing said the state prison sentence “reflects the callousness of what he did to her.”
“It reflects the damage that he did to a person who was innocent of any crime,” said Rohlfing, adding false reports waste the precious time of police. “They have real crimes to deal with.”
During the trial, defense lawyer Andrew Joseph Levin argued prosecutors did not present sufficient evidence to convict Cost of the charges.
When Cost took the stand in his own defense he denied the offenses.
Harold Cost II is taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies on Aug. 6, 2026. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. – MediaNews Group)
The investigation began about 6:58 a.m. April 27, 2025, when Cheltenham Township police responded to Melrose Park on Asbury Avenue after Cost called 911 and claimed his ex-girlfriend was shooting at him. The 911 call taker reported hearing three to four “bangs” in the background of the call, according to a criminal complaint filed by Cheltenham Detective Matthew Bugieda.
Three fired projectiles were recovered at the scene.
Detectives said two of the projectiles recovered from the scene appeared to be flush on the ground, “as if they were fired directly down.” From the distance and a lack of fired cartridge casings being recovered “it appears that shots were not fired from where Cost stated they were,” Bugieda alleged.
Police searched the area and found no sign of Cost’s ex-girlfriend. The ex-girlfriend subsequently was questioned by detectives.
“(The ex-girlfriend) was able to provide me with video from her home video surveillance system which clearly shows she was inside of her residence during the time of the shooting. She was also able to provide video of time before the shooting, during and after which shows her at the residence. The video was verified to be accurate and true. Investigators were able to confirm her alibi,” Bugieda wrote in court documents.
Authorities alleged the evidence recovered and statements taken “would indicate that Cost fired the gunshots himself” and “staged/fabricated the shooting.”
Harold Cost II, waits outside a Montgomery County courtroom for a verdict at his trial on Aug. 5, 2026. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. – MediaNews Group)
The ex-girlfriend also told detectives that Cost “previously attempted to frame her” and staged a crime involving a firearm in front of his home in Philadelphia on Nov. 14, 2023. Cost had accused the woman of arriving at his house armed with a firearm and threatening him with the gun and damaging his vehicle.
The woman initially was charged by Philadelphia police and taken into custody. But she “was able to prove her innocence” by providing authorities with a credible alibi as to her whereabouts, including GPS tracking data for her vehicle and video from her own security system, which clearly showed she was not at Cost’s residence at the time he claimed she assaulted him and possessed a firearm.
Philadelphia authorities subsequently dropped the charges against the woman.
Cost was not charged at that time by Philadelphia police for making a false report.
But when Cheltenham detectives learned about the previous Philadelphia incident they also filed charges against Cost for making a false report during that incident and Montgomery County prosecutors combined the charges with those stemming from the Cheltenham crime.
“This was a truly incredible investigation by Cheltenham police and Detective Bugieda specifically. They chased down unmistakable evidence of his (Cost’s) guilt,” Rohlfing said. “So not only did we prove (the Cheltenham) case we also proved Philadelphia’s case.”
The woman had an active protection from abuse order against Cost, court documents indicate.
“(The ex-girlfriend) stated because of the November 2023 incident she outfitted her home and bedroom with cameras in the event Cost would try to do something like that again,” Bugieda alleged. “(The woman) had to take extraordinary measures to ensure her and her family’s safety, to protect themselves from Harold Cost.”
When detectives confronted Cost and advised him that the investigation determined his ex-girlfriend was not at the park and did not shoot at him on April 27 and that evidence indicated he had staged and fabricated the shooting, he claimed investigators were liars and “refused to cooperate moving forward,” according to court documents.
It is evident, detectives said, that Cost was unsuccessful in Philadelphia in 2023 to have the woman convicted of offenses he alleged she violated there and so again, with firearms involved, attempted to incriminate the woman in Cheltenham during the April 2025 incident.
Detectives alleged Cost engaged in “a course of conduct in attempt to incriminate (the woman) for nearly two years.”