Murder conviction of Greene County man reversed by Superior Court
Nearly three years after George Junior Cameron was sentenced to life in prison for fatally stabbing David Cumberledge of Waynesburg, the state Superior Court has reversed his first-degree murder conviction. Cameron, 34, of Waynesburg, was convicted March 30, 2000, of stabbing Cumberledge 16 times Aug. 4, 1999. Cumberledge and Cameron’s estranged wife, Lisa, had been seeing one another, according to trial testimony. Cameron ran into Cumberledge at Lisa Cameron’s 291 E. High St., Waynesburg, apartment that night and the two men fought, resulting in Cumberledge’s death. Cameron was arrested Aug. 5 and had ingested alcohol and tranquilizers.
The Superior Court reversed the conviction by a 2-1 vote, based on an audiotaped confession from Cameron that a Greene County judge ruled jurors at his trial could not hear.
The tape was made 12 to 36 hours after Cameron’s arrest, depending on court records.
Public Defender Harry J. Cancelmi Jr., according to the Superior Court, wanted to present the tape at trial to show that Cameron was still under the influence of alcohol and drugs at the time the tape was made.
If jurors heard the tape and believed Cameron did not know what he was doing when he confessed, they could have disregarded the taped confession as evidence. Cancelmi cited the court’s refusal to allow the tape into evidence in his first appeal to the Superior Court, and the court ordered Greene County Judge H. Terry Grimes to examine the issue by making a second tape to compare Cameron’s voice on both.
Grimes complied with that order and maintained that he believed Cameron voluntarily confessed, and to admit the tape into evidence at trial, Cameron would have had to take the stand. He did not. Grimes also refused to hold an evidentiary hearing on the matter. In that hearing, Cameron would have presented testimony from his family and an expert witness that he was not coherent in his initial confession.
Cancelmi again appealed Grimes’ decision to the Superior Court. Judges John L. Musmanno and Richard B. Klein ruled that the tape should have been played for jurors, and they granted Cameron a new trial.
Musmanno and Klein wrote that Grimes incorrectly stated that Cameron would have to take the stand in order to admit the confession, and they said there is a “discernable difference” between the tape made after the arrest and the second tape in Cameron’s speech patterns.
“We conclude from our review of the tapes that a jury, having heard the audiotape of the initial interrogation, would be in a better position” to determine if Cameron’s confession was voluntary, according to the opinion.
The judges noted that, “While the evidence is overwhelming that Cameron killed Cumberledge, we cannot conclude that the trial court’s error was harmless.”
District Attorney Marjorie Fox said she does not plan to appeal the reversal to the Supreme Court, and she will retry the case.
She noted that First Assistant District Attorney Linda Chambers tried the case initially and might handle the retrial.
Attached to the eight-page reversal opinion was a six-page dissent written by Judge Maureen E. Lally-Green. She wrote that Grimes did not abuse his judicial discretion in not allowing the tape into evidence, and she disagreed that the two tapes were significantly different.
“This court must accept a trial court’s finding of fact, provided there is evidence to support it,” wrote Lally-Green.
“Here, the trial court determined in its discretion that since the audiotape of the confession was not relevant, it was not admissible. The record supports that determination.”
Cameron is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Houtzdale and probably will be moved back to the Greene County Prison, pending trial.
Because the conviction was overturned, Cameron can petition the court for bail, pending his new trial.