The State Superior Court now has the official court records and exhibits from the Richard McAnulty murder trial. The 62-year-old Center Township man is appealing his 2011 conviction for first degree murder and burglary in the shooting death of 39-year-old Harry Mears III.
In July of 2010, McAnulty shot Mears after reading emails between Mears and McAnulty’s wife. They’d been involved in an extramarital affair that had ended by the time McAnulty discovered the correspondence, but he became enraged and drove thirty miles to Mears’ home in Southwest Greensburg to kill him. McAnulty then drove back home and was sitting on his porch waiting when police arrived and arrested him.
In his appeal, McAnulty claims his attorney botched his defense and that Judge Debra Pezze should not have allowed Diane McAnulty to testify about the emails. Judge Pezze has since passed away.
McAnulty is serving life in prison without the chance for parole. The records were sent to Superior Court last Friday. The court has not yet scheduled its next action.
