Oct 27, 2002 By Jennifer Harr 3 min read

The state Superior Court reversed a Fayette County court order that suppressed a conversation in which Jon Gregory Bender allegedly solicited a man to kill his ex-girlfriend. Prosecutors will now be able to use the tape recording, in which Bender allegedly asked David Lint to kill Wanda Pletcher in exchange for money. He is charged with criminal solicitation to commit criminal homicide.

Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi said the tape could not be used because Lint was too near Bender’s Village of Banning home when the tape was made last May 19. The state constitution allows people a right to privacy in their homes.

“There is nothing in the record to support Bender’s expectation of privacy in the Lint vehicle or to justify his expectation that the words he spoke to Lint would not be intercepted. … Consequently, the tape recording should have been admitted into evidence in its entirety,” wrote Superior Court Judge Robert A. Graci.

First Trial Assistant District Attorney Joseph M. George Jr. filed the briefs on behalf of the commonwealth.

In his opinion suppressing the tape, Capuzzi said that Bender’s children could be heard talking in the background. Since Lint testified at a suppression hearing that Bender’s children were not outside, Capuzzi wrote that Lint intruded on Bender’s constitutional rights. In throwing out the tape, the jurist also noted that it was unclear when Bender and Lint got into Lint’s car, where the alleged incriminating statements were made.

District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon appealed the ruling because the tape was central to the commonwealth’s case.

The three-judge Superior Court panel disagreed with Capuzzi’s assessment of not being able to determine when the men actually got into Lint’s car. Graci, who authored the Friday opinion, wrote that a review of the tape’s transcript shows Bender telling his children, “I’m goin’.”

“We are simply not faced with an interception inside of his home. Rather, the interception began at some location outside the four walls of the Bender residence and then continued exclusively within Lint’s vehicle. At no time did Lint engage in conversation with Bender while Bender was in his home,” wrote Graci.

Vernon, pleased with the suppression reversal, said the case was on hold while the Superior Court decided the matter.

She was unsure of when the case would be tried.

The chief prosecutor also said she anticipated no problems with Lint, who faced jurors earlier this year in another case involving Bender.

Lint alleged that after the solicitation charge was filed, Bender tried to run him down with his car.

Jurors, however, apparently felt the testimony of Lint and his nephew was not credible and acquitted Bender on all charges.

Vernon said her faith in Lint, who has a criminal record himself, remains strong.

“He’s never wavered (in his account of what happened),” said Vernon.