State prosecutors mulling appeal of reversed conviction
A spokesman for state prosecutors said Monday they have yet to determine if they will appeal a federal magistrate judge’s ruling that granted a Latrobe man a new trial in a 1977 double homicide in Fayette County.
On Friday, Chief Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan reversed David J. Munchinski’s first-degree murder convictions in the shooting death of James P. Alford and Raymond Gierke at a home in Bear Rocks, Bullskin Township.
Lenihan found that prosecutors who tried Munchinski in the 1980s did not turn over evidence that could have cast doubt on the testimony of a man who told state police he witnessed the slayings on Dec. 2, 1977.
“We are reviewing the ruling,” said Nils Hagen-Fredericksen, spokesman for the Attorney General’s office.
Lenihan gave prosecutors four months to retry the case, but said that order would be stayed if her ruling were appealed to the 3rd Circuit Court.
Evidence she found was not turned over included statements that people gave to police that named others in the killings.
Leon Scaglione was also convicted for killing Alford and Gierke but died in prison several years ago, as did Richard Bowen, who testified he watched Scaglione and Munchinski kill the men.
Munchinski’s attorney, Noah Geary, could not be reached for comment. Lenihan, in March, told Geary that he should be ready to file a request for bond if she ruled in Munchinski’s favor. However, a bond request had not been filed as of late Monday afternoon.