In a court hearing yesterday, Westmoreland County prosecutors told Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio that taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for Kevin Murphy’s new attorneys to hire a ballistics expert in Murphy’s appeal of his multiple murder convictions. But the defense contends that because they are court-appointed, the county’s taxpayers are legally bound to pay their expenses as they prepare to file the new appeal.
The 58-year-old Murphy, who is from Saltsburg, was convicted in 2013 of the murders of his mother, sister, and aunt at the family’s glass business outside of Saltsburg in Loyalhanna Township, Westmoreland County. He is on Pennsylvania’s death row
District Attorney John Peck and Assistant D.A. Jim Lazar say Murphy has no right to a publicly-paid ballistics expert. They argued that Murphy brought the .22 caliber gun to the business, used it to kill the three women because they objected to his romantic relationship with a married woman, and hid the gun inside a machine. Peck said there were no other suspects.
Murphy claimed he took the gun to the business to shoot nuisance birds. His attorneys, Brian Aston and Ken Noga, say their ballistics expert would do the job a previous expert hired by Murphy’s original attorneys did not do, namely test the weapon and bullet fragments taken from the victims.
Their appeal will be based on a claim of ineffective counsel. It has yet to be filed. The State Supreme Court has already turned down Murphy’s original appeal.
Judge Bilik-DeFazio previously granted the defense request for the expert, but rescinded the order after the D.A. objected that he had not even been notified, let alone had the chance to tell his side. The judge will rule on the issue at a later date.
