Judge Meagan Bilik-Defazio has granted a defense request to examine the evidence and exhibits from Kevin Murphy’s murder trial.
The 56-year-old Murphy is from Saltsburg. He was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to death for killing his mother, sister, and aunt at Ferguson Glass, a family-owned business outside of Saltsburg in Loyalhanna Township, Westmoreland County.
Attorney Brian Aston filed the request last week, contending that Murphy’s trial attorneys, Mark Bolkovac and Bob Bell, had not put up an effective defense. Aston and his cohort, Kenneth Noga, want to review the physical evidence and the trial exhibits to aid in their preparation of amended post-sentence motions. That evidence would include the murder weapon, a .22-caliber pistol that was found in a piece of equipment at the glass shop. Murphy denied shooting the women, but said he had fired the gun at some birds at the business that day.
Prosecutors claimed Murphy shot his sister and mother because they objected to his romance with a married woman, and his aunt came upon the crime and so he shot her, too.
Earlier this month, Judge Bilik-Defazio granted a request for an extension of time to filed the amended post-sentence motions, giving the defense more 120 days, which would make the new deadline November 4th.
