Waynesburg man’s new trial postponed
The retrial of a Waynesburg man already in prison for killing his common-law wife and her mother in 1984 was postponed Thursday. Joseph Nara, 56, of Waynesburg was charged more than two decades ago in the shooting deaths of his wife, DeLorean Churby, and mother-in-law, Virginia Ruth Churby. The shootings took place at Virginia Churby’s mobile home in Georges Township.
At that time, Nara pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, but years of appeals ensued.
In 1991, then-Fayette County Judge William J. Franks vacated Nara’s guilty pleas after hearing testimony from a psychiatrist that Nara was mentally ill when he entered the pleas. Prosecutors appealed the decision, and had the convictions reinstated.
The case has gone through additional appeals since 1991 until last year when a federal appellate court ruled in line with Franks finding that Nara was mentally ill at the time he entered his pleas, and vacating his conviction.
Defense attorneys Samuel Davis and Mark Mehalov requested a continuance of the retrial as well as a continuance for a pretrial hearing Thursday.
The pretrial hearing was set to hear arguments and review evidence after defense council made a motion last month to dismiss the charges against Nara or bar prosecutors from the state Attorney General’s office from seeking the death penalty.
Davis argued that a continuance was necessary because a psychologist working for the defense has not completed an evaluation of Nara. Davis told Fayette County Judge Steve P. Leskinen that he could provide the psychologist’s report to prosecutors by June 15.
Leskinen ruled to continue the hearing until Sept. 3 and schedule the start of trial for Oct. 6, and added that after Davis submits the doctor’s report to the prosecution they will have 30 days to respond to the evaluation.
Those rulings came after several hours of separate closed-door conferences between Leskinen, Nara and Nara’s defense council, and Leskinen and prosecutors.
Last month, Davis and Mehalov asked Leskinen to dismiss the case citing the death of several witnesses. They argued in the motion that the death of the witnesses could affect their ability of presenting a defense during the trial and any sentencing proceedings.
The motion also alleges that the time to file notice of intent to seek the death penalty in the case has expired.
Notice to seek the death penalty is filed at the time of the official court arraignment. For Nara, that occurred in 1984.