TribLIVE s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
A death row inmate convicted in the 2010 torture and murder of a mentally disabled woman in Greensburg wants a new lawyer after waiting more than three years for his court-appointed counsel to file an appeal.
Ricky Smyrnes, 34, formerly of North Huntingdon, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection in connection with the fatal stabbing of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty in an apartment he shared with five others more than a decade ago.
Pittsburgh lawyer Thomas Farrell was appointed in 2017 to handle the second appeal, which is expected to challenge the quality of Smyrnes’ legal representation during his 2013 trial. Smyrnes, in a letter sent from death row at SCI Phoenix in Montgomery County, claims he has been unable to communicate with Farrell and asked Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Mears to appoint him
TribLIVE s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
A Penn Hills man will serve up to 23 months in jail for his role in injuries sustained by a 2-year-old girl who police said still “looked like a zombie” days after a December 2017 incident in an Allegheny Township home.
James Michael Bucci, 35, pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony count of child endangerment and misdemeanor charges of simple assault and reckless endangerment. Prosecutors dismissed two felony counts of aggravated assault of children.
According to court records, the child sustained multiple head injuries while in Bucci’s care. Bucci claimed the child suffered head injuries when she fell off a couch, tripped over his leg and hit her head on the floor, but told police he could not account for other facial injuries.
Courtesy of Westmoreland County
TribLIVE s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
A Pittsburgh man was sentenced Wednesday to serve a year on probation after he pleaded guilty to charges of escape and that he vandalized a holding cell following his arrest last summer in New Kensington.
Daevar Lamont Stevens, 21, will remain behind bars, though, to answer a new set of charges filed last week following an incident in which New Kensington police officers claimed he threatened their lives and those of their family members after he was arrested on unrelated charges Jan. 21.
TribLIVE s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
A Penn Township man will serve two years on probation for his role in a fatal crash last year on Route 30.
Chad Gregorini, 45, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment and two summary traffic citations in connection with the Jan. 21, 2020, crash that resulted in the death of 77-year-old Kenneth Youngerman of North Huntingdon.
Police said Gregorini was driving along Route 30 in North Huntingdon when he rear-ended an SUV, which was stopped in the road as the driver, Youngerman’s wife Hilda, attempted a left turn onto Edwin Drive. Kenneth Youngerman, a front-seat passenger, died from injuries he sustained in the crash. Hilda Youngerman was hospitalized and recovered.
TribLIVE s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
A Delmont man’s confession regarding the alleged sexual assault of guest in his home was legally obtained by police, a judge ruled.
Robert Pantalone, 55, is awaiting trial on six sex-related counts that claim he forced himself on a woman as she slept on an air mattress in the basement of his home on following a New Year’s celebration in 2018.
According to court records, Pantalone admitted during a interrogation four days later with county detectives that he attempted to forcibly have sex with his accuser several times. She supplied investigators with a text message she later received from Pantalone apologizing for the alleged assault, police said.