A brief from Indiana County President Judge William Martin is due in Pennsylvania’s Superior Court today for the Charles Cook case.
Indiana County District Attorney Pat Dougherty is appealing Judge Martin’s ruling last March that denied the admissibility of two pieces of evidence in Cook’s homicide trial: Cook’s statements upon his arrest in Billings, Montana three days after the death of Myrtle McGill in December of 1991, and Cook’s mental health records.
Cook is accused of shooting McGill through a kitchen window at her home along South 6th Street in Indiana, then stealing her car and driving to Pittsburgh. The car was recovered at the Pittsburgh Greyhound Bus station, and Cook turned up in Montana three days later. He was identified as a suspect in 2007, based on DNA found on a cigarette butt in the car, and was finally located and arrested in Minnesota in 2016.
Judge Martin last month denied an amended defense motion to dismiss the charges against Cook. That motion was based on the state’s law demanding a speedy trial.
