Court briefs
Filings planned Prosecutors and the attorney for a Grindstone woman charged with killing her husband will submit briefs about whether the homicide charges in the case should be dismissed.
At a hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning, Debra Payne’s attorney, Samuel Davis, and District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon agreed to argue the case in legal filings.
Payne, of 110 Orchid Drive, is accused of shooting her husband, Harold Eugene Payne, on June 5, 2003, while he was asleep in bed. State police initially believed Harold Payne’s death was a suicide, but tests on the clothing Debra Payne was wearing that night led police to believe she killed him.
Payne was arrested in December 2003 after lab tests showed gunshot residue on her sweatshirt, even though she told authorities her husband shot himself while she was not in the room.
Davis has argued that there was not enough evidence to justify the homicide charge against Payne. Prosecutors, Davis claimed, did not prove enough at Payne’s preliminary hearing to send the case to court.
And with no witnesses to the shooting, no direct admission from Debra Payne, no fingerprints at the crime scene, or motive to kill her husband, Davis suggested there was not enough evidence to charge her.
He also asked that any statements Payne gave to police on the day her husband died, and Dec. 17, 2003, when she was arrested, be suppressed. Police, Davis claimed, did not read Payne her rights, even though they viewed her as a suspect.
Davis must submit a brief in 30 days, and prosecutors have another 30 days to respond before Judge Steve P. Leskinen makes a decision.
Payne, meanwhile, remains in the county prison without bond.
Convict seeks attorney
Thomas Woods wants a standby attorney when he comes to Fayette County Court to appeal his first-degree-murder conviction because the jailhouse lawyers he has consulted aren’t able to tell him how to present evidence.
In a motion filed Tuesday, Woods, 40, indicated that the “lawyer inmates” with whom he has consulted don’t know what he is required to present in court when he argues he should be granted a new trial.
In 1997, Woods, 40, was convicted in the shooting death of Leroy Durant. He claimed at his trial that the shooting was in self-defense, but prosecutors successfully argued the shooting was premeditated, one of the elements needed for a first-degree-murder conviction.
Police said the shooting stemmed from a drug deal gone awry. Woods, Alfred E. Riley Jr. and Herbert Green went to Durant’s home to buy crack cocaine the night he was killed, according to police. While Woods testified at his trial that he shot Durant in self-defense during a struggle, Green and Riley testified against him. Woods’ defense in the case was that he was protecting himself during an attack by Durant.
Green was sentenced to five to 10 years for third-degree murder, and Riley was given immunity for his testimony.
Woods filed this appeal on his own behalf, without the assistance of a lawyer. That filing is a 70-page handwritten petition that brings up 20 different points as to why his conviction should be overturned.
A judge will rule on Woods’ request for an attorney at a later date.
Hearings waived
Two Brownsville residents waived preliminary hearings earlier this month on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit sexual intercourse with an animal.
Both Wilma Davis, 52, and John Vincent Petrillo, 36, of Cadwallader Street were charged after allegedly trying to induce dogs they were pet-sitting over Memorial Day weekend to engage in a sex act at a North Union Township home.
State police said they filed charges after Davis allegedly told one of the pet owners about the incident in June. A separate charge of criminal attempt to commit sexual intercourse with an animal was withdrawn. The remaining conspiracy charge was sent to Fayette County Court.