Judge denies Munchinski bond request
?A federal magistrate denied a request for bond as a Latrobe man convicted of a 1977 double slaying in Fayette County continues to appeal his case.
Chief Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan found that the only evidence of David J. Munchinski’s failing health was a footnote in a January 2005 order issued by another judge.
“More substantial medical evidence would be necessary for release on this basis before the court’s decision on the merits of the petition, which is anticipated shortly,” Lenihan wrote in a Thursday order.
Munchinski, 58, has a pending appeal in federal court for his convictions in the Dec. 2, 1977 deaths of Raymond Alford and James P. Gierke.
The men were fatally shot in a chalet in Bear Rocks, Bullskin Township.
Munchinski, who was arrested along with an accomplice in several years after the homicides, was convicted in 1986 and is serving two life sentences.
Over the years, Munchinski has mounted numerous appeals, maintaining he is innocent. The man convicted as his accomplice in the slayings, Leon Scaglione, died in prison several years ago.
Munchinski’s initial appeals to the state appellate courts, as well as two appeals under the Post-Conviction Relief Act, were denied.
A third PCRA was granted by a visiting judge who found that Fayette County prosecutors who tried the case in 1986 withheld evidence.
Munchinski’s conviction was vacated, and a retrial barred. However, prosecutors appealed the decision and the state Superior Court reversed it, and reinstated Munchinski’s conviction.
In the opinion, the court noted that many of the items Munchinski’s attorney claimed were newly discovered were known to him long before.
The current federal appeal followed, and a decision has been pending since arguments in the case last year.
In August, Munchinski’s longtime attorney, Noah Geary, filed a petition for his release while Lenihan decides the latest appeal.
If Munchinski prevails in this appeal, Lenihan indicated that Geary “should be prepared to address this issue, with the proper supporting evidence, at a bond hearing.”