The trial date for Ronald Weiss is now set for October, exactly 44 years and a day since the murder of 16-year-old Barbara Bruzda of Tunnelton.
Judge Thomas Bianco has set October 24th for jury selection to begin in Weiss’s retrial. It was previously scheduled to begin last week.
Weiss was convicted in 1997 for killing Bruzda after playing pool with her at her father’s bar. In 2018, federal judge Mark Hornack reversed the conviction because of prosecutorial misconduct by then-Deputy State Attorney General John Scott Robinette and a state trooper, who claimed two inmates who testified against Weiss were not promised special treatment, when they clearly were.
Judge Bianco ruled that the prosecution’s misconduct and Weiss’s guilt or innocence were two separate issues, and that Robinette had not intentionally violated the rules. His ruling was upheld in State Superior Court. After Hornack ordered that Weiss be released from prison, he was immediately re-arrested and the charges were re-filed.
Weiss was 30 years old at the time of the murder. Bruzda’s body was found five months later buried under some leaves in a wooded area. Weiss avoided prosecution for almost 20 years until a state law barring spouses from testifying against each other changed and allowed his common law wife to appear as a witness for the prosecution.
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