Modery trail postponed
WASHINGTON – The trial in the Ira Swearingen murder case that had been scheduled to start June 11, has fallen victim to summer vacations. The trial for Gregory Modery, 31, of McMurray is now set to begin Sept. 4. Modery is charged with homicide, aggravated assault, kidnapping, robbery, tampering with evidence and criminal conspiracy to commit each of those acts.
A co-defendant in the case, Alexander Martos, 34, formerly of Bentleyville and Monongahela, earlier this year pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
He has not yet been sentenced, though state guidelines mandate a life sentence without the chance of parole.
Martos has provided investigators with additional information about a robbery ring that operated for several years near an adult bookstore near the Kammerer exit on I-70 in Washington County. He has also agreed to testify in the Modery trial.
According to Assistant District Attorney Paul Petro, both the defense and the prosecution requested the continuation of the trial, and it was approved by Judge Katherine Emery.
“The June trial date created problems with vacations for witnesses, police officers and attorneys on both sides in the case,” Petro said.
Jury selection is now set to begin Sept. 4 and is expected to take about a week. Several weeks of testimony are expected to follow.
Swearingen, 49, a medical consultant from Stout, Ohio, was reported missing in December 1999. He was scheduled to assist with a joint replacement surgery at Uniontown Hospital on Dec. 13, 1999, but he never showed up and had not checked into his Uniontown hotel room the previous night.
It was later discovered that Swearingen was kidnapped while en route from Pittsburgh International Airport to Uniontown.
He was beaten and robbed, then taken to a remote area of Greene County, where he was shot in the head and tossed into a wooded area. His body was found nearly a year later by hunters.
Modery and Martos were arrested Dec. 17, 1999, after Martos allegedly used Swearingen’s bank card to get money from an automated teller machine in West Mifflin. Swearingen’s burned rental car was found that same day in Greene County.
To date, nine people have been charged with crimes related to Swearingen’s robbery and murder, though only Martos and Modery were actually charged with homicide.