A judge ruled today that the cases of a Lancaster city teenager charged with murdering an East Drumore Township man and with firing a gun in a city shootout will remain in the adult criminal system following a hearing last month.

Judge Leonard Brown III denied 18-year-old Alexander Wade Whisman’s petition to be decertified to the juvenile system. The ruling means both of Whisman’s criminal cases will remain in the adult criminal system in the Court of Common Pleas.

Attorneys representing Whisman, who is charged with a combined 23 offenses in the two cases including criminal homicide, had argued before Judge Brown in a decertification hearing on July 14 that his case should be transferred to the juvenile system. Though Whisman is now 18, he was a minor at the time of the offenses.

An expert who evaluated Whisman concluded in a report and was prepared to testify that he was not amenable to treatment in the juvenile system. Whisman’s attorney stipulated to the report without argument, and Judge Brown said he accepted the conclusion of the report, which he called “extensive.”

Whisman, along with two co-defendants, are accused of kidnapping, assaulting and murdering 25-year-old Matthew Scott Whisman in April 2024. Whisman is cousins with Matthew Whisman.

The three co-defendants are accused of assaulting Matthew Whisman inside a residence in the 1100 block of Lancaster Pike in East Drumore Township the night of April 3, 2024, then forcing him into a vehicle and injecting him with a lethal dose of fentanyl, killing him. Whisman’s two co-defendants then threw Matthew Whisman’s body off a bridge.

Matthew Whisman’s remains were later recovered in Cecil County, Md., in August 2024.

That case is unrelated to a separate set of charges Whisman faces related to a September 2024 city shootout where he is accused of firing a gun.

District Attorney Andy Harbaugh represented the Commonwealth during the decertification hearing.

First Deputy Assistant District Attorney Cody Wade and District Attorney Christopher Miller will prosecute the cases.

Trooper Amos Glick and Lancaster City Bureau of Police Det. Jared Snader filed the charges.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.