Court briefs
Guilty plea entered A Uniontown man who shot a cow in December 2003 pleaded guilty to cruelty to animals, criminal mischief and conspiracy Wednesday in Fayette County Court.
Matthew Law Kelly, 21, of 2169 Morgantown Road will serve a probationary sentence set by Judge Steve P. Leskinen.
He and two other men, Dustin Thomas and Christopher Colbank, were each charged with shooting the Black Angus cow, owned by Damon T. Hellen of Lake Lynn. Kelly, according to state police, fired a 30-30 rifle at the cow along 214 Gans Woodbridge Road in Springhill Township around 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 7, 2003.
Hellen saw the car stop near a farm field, and later found the cow dead. He got the car’s license plate number and police traced it back to Thomas, 21.
Thomas, who was admitted to the county’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program, reportedly told police that he owned the rifle used to shoot the cow. He also told police that he, Kelly and Colbank joked about shooting the animal.
Kelly will be sentenced at a later date.
Appeal filed
Mark Anthony Kerik filed paperwork to appeal a Fayette County’s judge’s determination that he should be tried as an adult for alleged sexual assault committed when he was a juvenile.
Kerik, 25, requested that several of the charges against him be transferred to juvenile court because they occurred when he was under 18. Judge Steve P. Leskinen, however, ruled that Kerik was no longer an appropriate candidate for treatment as a juvenile.
State police charged Kerik of Braznell Concrete Road with several sexual assaults that took place between December 1992 and June 2000 in Fayette and Washington counties. The allegations first surfaced in September 2002.
Some of the charges stem from a time when Kerik was legally a minor, others when he was legally an adult.
Denial contested
Steve Wayne Bender, serving a life sentence for killing his estranged wife’s boyfriend, has appealed his denied post-conviction petition to the state Superior Court.
Bender, 48, of Connellsville sought to have his second-degree murder conviction overturned because his trial and appellate attorneys were ineffective. A Fayette County judge denied his claims earlier this year.
In 2001, Bender was convicted of the May 2000 shooting death of Marvin Knieriem at Knieriem’s Connellsville house. Both Knieriem and Bender’s estranged wife, Wanda Pletcher, were staying there. Bender’s daughter was also there.
A former prison guard and military man, Bender claimed that he shot Knieriem multiple times in defense of his daughter. Bender claimed Knieriem was sexually assaulting the girl. Police investigated that claim, but found no evidence of abuse.