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McMaster retrial underway

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A Fayette County jury heard opening remarks at the retrial of a Brownsville woman charged with killing her boyfriend in 2009.

Dayna McMaster, 37, was convicted of third-degree murder for stabbing Clarence Blair III at a remote gas well in Redstone Township. During her 2010 trial, McMaster’s attorney argued that Blair attacked McMaster and she had to defend herself from an abusive boyfriend.

Prosecutors, however, contended that McMaster had a chance to get out of the vehicle in which she and Blair were riding, and instead hid a knife under her leg, and ultimately used it to stab Blair.

In August 2013, the state Superior Court vacated her conviction and remanded the case to Fayette County for a new trial.

The Superior Court, in overturning the conviction, determined McMaster’s trial attorney should have called witnesses who could testify about abuse she allegedly suffered.

The judges found that witness testimony regarding bruises, black eyes, broken bones and other injuries “was crucial and would have served as substantive evidence which could have created a reasonable doubt of guilt.”

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