Retrial finds Roe guilty of murder
WAYNESBURG-After 7 hours over a two day time period, Lana Kay Roe, 41, of Carmichaels was found guilty of first-degree murder by the jury in Greene County Judge William Nalitz’s courtroom this past Friday.
Lana Roe will spend the rest of her life in prison without parole for the shooting of Cordele Edward Patterson, 38, of Daisytown in Aug. 14, 2012.
Roe’s husband, Jason William Roe was also found guilty of first-degree murder of Patterson in November and also will spend the rest of his life in prison without the option of parole, but the courtroom was unable to reach a verdict dealing with the charges against Lana Roe, which led to the re-trial last week.
The murder that Lana Roe has been found guilty for took place in a hunting cabin located on Strawn Hill Road in Wayne Township where her husband shot Patterson, and also accidentally shot Lana Roe.
Lana Roe claimed that she was unaware of her husband’s plan to kill Patterson and that she did not act in concert with him.
Nalitz along with the jury found that after the re-trial, along with the evidence presented by both sides, that Lana Roe was guilty.
Along with the guilty verdict of first-degree murder, she was also found guilty with charges of falsely reporting stems from a police report she made that dealt with Patterson stealing weapons from the Roe household.
In the beginning, Lana Roe stated Patterson took the weapons, but in a later interview with police, she admitted she sold two of the weapons prior to the reported burglary. This confession led to Lana Roe being found guilty of False Reports to Law Enforcement Officers, in violation of Section 4906(a) of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code.
Lana Roe is now in custody at the State Correctional Institution at Muncy for diagnosis and classification.