In Indiana County Court today, Judge Thomas Bianco is scheduled to conduct a Plea Court proceeding for 62-year-old David Yingling of Arcadia, who is charged with criminal homicide in the shooting death of his roommate at their shared home in Montgomery Township.
50-year-old Elwood Skillings was shot dead as he slept last May and Yingling let the body lay in its bed for as many as four days before police found it after they had been alerted by a phone caller who said that that a murder may have occurred. The caller was an off-duty Cherry Tree police officer who got his information from a woman who apparently knew of the shooting. Yingling admitted to investigators that he killed Skillings, and said he left the decomposing body in its bed because he didn’t know what to do with it. He claimed he shot the victim because Skillings had been bullying his mentally-challenged younger brother, who also lived at the home.
If the proceeding today does not result in a guilty plea, the case will proceed to trial, with Yingling scheduled for Criminal Call on February 3rd.
Plea Court will also be conducted for 38-year-old Dustin Faith of Blairsville, who is charged with two counts of disorderly conduct and two counts of harassment for a confrontation with an Indiana Borough parking enforcement officer and then police who had arrived on the scene at 9th and Philadelphia Streets last June. Police said Faith made a lewd comment to the parking officer and then threatened the police officers. The proceeding will be conducted by Judge William Martin.
