State Superior Court has received the Indiana County Court docket of the prosecution of David Yingling, the 64-year-old Arcadia man who last year pleaded guilty to third degree murder in the shooting death of his roommate.
50-year-old Elwood Skillman was shot to death while sleeping at the remote home along Arcadia Road in Montgomery Township, and his decomposing body was left lying in its bed for days until police acting on a tip from an informant showed up and found it. Yingling said he shot Skillman because he’d been bullying Yingling’s mentally challenged younger brother.
In March, Yingling filed a Motion for Post Conviction Collateral Relief from his 17-and-a-half to 35-year state prison sentence, and his court-appointed attorney then filed an amended motion to the same effect in July. Judge Thomas Bianco denied the motion in September, prompting the appeal the Superior Court by a new attorney.
Two weeks ago, Judge Bianco gave attorney Andrew Skala 21 days to file a concise statement of the matters in the appeal, limiting Skala to a single sentence without subparts on each point, with further restrictions on what he may include in each sentence, and said any issue not specifically cited in the appeal will be considered waived for purposes of further appeal.
