Turned away by State Superior Court, 39-year-old Shaun Fairman of Washington Township and 33-year-old Deandre Payton Jones Jr. of Baltimore, Maryland have asked the State Supreme Court to consider their cases.
Fairman fatally shot his father-in-law, Richard Shotts, in June of 2012 at the Trade City-area home of his then-estranged wife. The court ruled that he offered no evidence to support his appeal that he was wrongfully convicted of second degree murder.
Jones was also found guilty of second degree murder. He was one of four defendants in the sword-stabbing death of Tyron Howard of Blairsville in a case of bad blood between drug dealers. Superior Court ruled that his appeal was based on his contention that “the jury should have believed him instead of the evidence against him,” a judgment the court was unwilling to make.
Both men were denied their Superior Court appeals in March and both filed petitions for allowance of appeal before the Supreme Court this month. The Indiana County District Attorney’s office filed its answer to Fairman’s petition on April 15th and to the Jones petition this past Monday.
