Police probe threatening call
Uniontown police and the state police are conducting an investigation after a man who was a member of a jury that convicted a Hopwood woman of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year received a threatening phone call regarding the verdict. Uniontown police Officer John Kauer said Doren Michael of Uniontown told officers Monday afternoon that he received a phone call from an unidentified man who first verified who he was and then threatened him.
Kauer said the caller asked Michael how much it costs to “rig” a jury and then stated, “I know what you did and who you are. I am coming to get you.”
Michael told Kauer that he served as a jurist in the February homicide trial of Johnna Palya who was charged with killing her boyfriend, Barry Pavlicko, in 2007.
Following her conviction in February of involuntary manslaughter, Fayette County Judge Gerald R. Solomon sentenced Palya to 2 1/2 to 5 years in prison, the maximum she could receive under the law.
Palya testified during her trial last week that the pistol that shot Pavlicko, 43, in the back of the head fired when the couple was in a struggle to gain control of the weapon.
Prosecutors and one other witness had contended that Palya intentionally shot Pavlicko at their home at 25 Nell St.
Pavlicko died two months after the shooting at a West Virginia hospital.
Jurors also heard testimony from an inmate who said Palya confessed she shot her boyfriend when he turned his back to her.
Before she was sentenced, Palya maintained that the shooting was not intentional.
Prosecutors had sought a first-degree murder conviction, claiming that Palya premeditated Pavlicko’s death.
She previously went to trial in September 2009, but jurors in that case could not reach a decision.
During the first trial, 10 of those jurors voted to convict Palya of first-degree murder and two wanted to convict her of third-degree murder, forcing the mistrial.
Kauer said that police are continuing to investigate the alleged threat made to Michael and are working in conjunction with state police regarding the incident.