Fayette County man’s appeal in 1980s homicide denied
A visiting judge has denied the appeal of a decades-old Fayette County murder conviction.
Somerset County Senior Judge David C. Klementik issued the order denying the petition for post-conviction relief for Joseph Frankenberry, 75. Frankenberry’s attorney, J. Andrew Salemme, had claimed there were taped conversations that may contain evidence that could help clear his name.
Frankenberry was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1982 for the murder of John Tomasek, whose wife, Phoebe Tomasek, was having an extramarital affair with Elmer Younkin.
Phoebe Tomasek and Younkin set up a hit on John Tomasek. Salemme claimed they were on audio tape discussing hiring Charles Ralph Huey, an FBI informant, to kill John Tomasek for $20,000.
Huey was granted immunity to testify, and claimed that Frankenberry killed John Tomasek as the two waited in the Tomasek driveway. Huey said Frankenberry shot John Tomasek in the head four times while he sat in the cab of a tractor trailer.
Salemme claimed the tape was never turned over to Frankenberry’s trial lawyers, but should’ve been. He argued that violated as rights, contending it could’ve swayed jurors to render a different verdict.
Klementik’s decision came after an evidentiary hearing in early February where Salemme brought forth evidence through testimony of Phoebe Tomasek, who’s serving a life sentence for the crime at SCI Muncy, Frankenberrty’s trial attorney Vincent Roskovensky II, private investigator James Baranowskiand former state trooper Montgomery Goodwin, who investigated the homicide.
Klementik wrote in his opinion that while Phoebe Tomasek signed a sworn statement that she knew of the existence of tape recordings where Younkin discussed hiring Huey, her testimony in Februrary showed that she didn’t know if the recordings mentioned Frankenberry or anyone else.
“She was told after the murder that Mr. Frankenberry was involved,” Klementik wrote. “Elmer Younkin did not tell her who he hired, and she never met or had any interaction with Mr. Frankenberry.”
Klementik also wrote the over 30 pages of transcripts from Younkin’s role as a bookie contained various conversations with unidentified people. An overwhelming majority of the talk between him and Phoebe Tomasek had no mention of killing, he wrote.
“On the whole, the transcript neither directly inculpates nor exculpates Joseph Frankenberry,” Klementik wrote.
Roskovensky testified that he recalled there was a discussion of tapes that were suppressed in 1981, but did not know the content of the tapes and couldn’t recall any details from 30 years ago. Goodwin also testified he could not remember anything about audio tapes.
Baranowski’s report from 2016 stated there were several audio recordings Youkin made where Phoebe Tomasek discussed hiring Huey to kill her husband.
“The report, however, indicates that he was unable to find any such audiotapes and has no personal knowledge of their contents,” Klementik wrote.
In conclusion, Klementik found that Frankenberry’s attorney was unable to show that any tapes were withheld from the defense, no audio tapes were ever found with the alleged evidence and the audio tapes that were found made no mention of whom Pheobe Tomasek and the late Elmer Younkin hired to kill John Tomasek.
Frankenberry is currently lodged at the State Correctional Institution at Benner Township, Centre County.