Indiana County President Judge Thomas Bianco last week ruled that Ronald Weiss is competent to stand trial again for the murder of 16-year-old Barbara Bruzda in 1978. The order follows an evidentiary hearing twice postponed since a September ruling for an expert examination of Weiss, who is now 77 years old.
Weiss was convicted in 1997 of killing Bruzda after he’d played pool with her at her father’s tavern in Tunnelton. Her body was found buried under a pile of leaves in a wooded area in March of 1979.
Federal Judge Mark Hornack in 2018 ordered Weiss released due to prosecutorial misconduct at the original trail, but he was immediately re-arrested, with Bianco eventually ruling that the murder and the misconduct by the state Attorney General’s office were two separate matters.
In addition to ruling on Weiss’s competency, Bianco also ordered a pretrial conference. Since 2021, there have been five attempts at a trial.
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