After a pretrial conference on Monday, Indiana County Judge Thomas Bianco issued several rulings in the murder case against 19-year-old Justin Stevenson, one of three men charged in the killings of a Clymer couple last October.
Judge Bianco affirmed that neither the defense nor the prosecution has requested the court’s help with discovery in the case. He also said that attorney David Shrager has indicated that he will seek a separate attorney for the penalty phase of the trial, should there be one, and he gave Shrager thirty days to file a motion to that effect. Bianco ordered that pretrial motions be filed by July 28th, with oral arguments on the motions scheduled for August 16th, and Criminal Call in Stevenson’s case was continued until September 1st. A trial date has not yet been set.
Stevenson and 18-year-old Nathan Price are accused of beating to death Timothy Gardner and Jacqueline Brink at the couple’s Hillside Drive apartment outside of Clymer. Investigators say they planned to rob Gardner during a drug deal and ended up beating him with a pipe and killing Brink to keep her quiet. Two children in the home were not harmed. District Attorney Pat Dougherty is seeking the death penalty against Stevenson and Price.
A third defendant, Isaiah Scott, is also charged with homicide. He was a minor at the time and is not eligible for the death penalty. Scott fled the scene after the beatings began. Scott is scheduled for a pretrial status conference on May 30th.
