![\"Harold](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786062128_32_HaroldCostConvicted.jpg\")
Harold Leo Cost II (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\nNORRISTOWN \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The jury acquitted Cost of several conspiracy-related charges.<\/p>\n
The jury of six men and six women deliberated about seven hours before reaching the verdict.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Harold Leo Cost II (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n
Cost did not comment about his conviction or the sentencing agreement as sheriff\u2019s deputies took him into custody to begin serving the sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe jury found that Harold Cost set his ex-girlfriend up twice \u2014 once in 2023 in Philadelphia and once in Cheltenham in 2025,\u201d said Assistant District Attorney Blair Rohlfing. \u201cIt absolutely had an effect on her and the way in which she lives her life, her sense of safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutors theorized Cost\u2019s motive behind the frame-up was to gain custody of a child that he shared with the woman.<\/p>\n
Rohlfing said the state prison sentence \u201creflects the callousness of what he did to her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt reflects the damage that he did to a person who was innocent of any crime,\u201d said Rohlfing, adding false reports waste the precious time of police. \u201cThey have real crimes to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the trial, defense lawyer Andrew Joseph Levin argued prosecutors did not present sufficient evidence to convict Cost of the charges.<\/p>\n
When Cost took the stand in his own defense he denied the offenses.<\/p>\n
![\"Harold](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786062128_484_CostCustody.jpg\")
Harold Cost II is taken into custody by sheriff\u2019s deputies on Aug. 6, 2026. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n
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 \u201cbangs\u201d in the background of the call, according to a criminal complaint filed by Cheltenham Detective Matthew Bugieda.<\/p>\n
Three fired projectiles were recovered at the scene.<\/p>\n
Detectives said two of the projectiles recovered from the scene appeared to be flush on the ground, \u201cas if they were fired directly down.\u201d From the distance and a lack of fired cartridge casings being recovered \u201cit appears that shots were not fired from where Cost stated they were,\u201d Bugieda alleged.<\/p>\n
Police searched the area and found no sign of Cost\u2019s ex-girlfriend. The ex-girlfriend subsequently was questioned by detectives.<\/p>\n
\u201c(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,\u201d Bugieda wrote in court documents.<\/p>\n
Authorities alleged the evidence recovered and statements taken \u201cwould indicate that Cost fired the gunshots himself\u201d and \u201cstaged\/fabricated the shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Harold](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786062129_859_CostWaits.jpg\")
Harold Cost II, waits outside a Montgomery County courtroom for a verdict at his trial on Aug. 5, 2026. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n
The ex-girlfriend also told detectives that Cost \u201cpreviously attempted to frame her\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
The woman initially was charged by Philadelphia police and taken into custody. But she \u201cwas able to prove her innocence\u201d 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\u2019s residence at the time he claimed she assaulted him and possessed a firearm.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia authorities subsequently dropped the charges against the woman.<\/p>\n
Cost was not charged at that time by Philadelphia police for making a false report.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a truly incredible investigation by Cheltenham police and Detective Bugieda specifically. They chased down unmistakable evidence of his (Cost\u2019s) guilt,\u201d Rohlfing said. \u201cSo not only did we prove (the Cheltenham) case we also proved Philadelphia\u2019s case.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman had an active protection from abuse order against Cost, court documents indicate.<\/p>\n
\u201c(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,\u201d Bugieda alleged. \u201c(The woman) had to take extraordinary measures to ensure her and her family\u2019s safety, to protect themselves from Harold Cost.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u201crefused to cooperate moving forward,\u201d according to court documents.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Detectives alleged Cost engaged in \u201ca course of conduct in attempt to incriminate (the woman) for nearly two years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORRISTOWN \u2014 A Philadelphia man was convicted of charges he staged and fabricated a shooting in a Cheltenham…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[46,182,139,28,69,71,70,10918],"class_list":["post-260691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-courts","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-top-stories-tth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}