Recent content by lsv7

The defense was granted a continuance on 2/25. There has been nothing else since October.

No trial date on the docket. Weirdly, the last date listed is for the hearings on 4/15, but down in the entries the judge granted a motion for transcripts of testimony from 4/25. It looks like they're still going back and forth on the pre-trial stuff as recently as 4/26.

Trial Begins for Man Accused of Killing Main Line Model The jury was picked today, and they gave their opening statements. The video is more informative than the article. Based on the defense's opening statement, Harris is claiming to not remember what happened. Christina's boyfriend and...

For Procopio, his trial has been delayed. A pre-trial motion hearing is scheduled for 5/31. His trial should begin on 7/8. I would expect the local news to be tweeting if Cooper's trial was happening, so I'm thinking it has been pushed back but there's nothing about it on the court's website yet.

Nothing in the local newspaper. Cooper's arraignment happened as expected. He filed to waive his right to appear on 4/4. His trial is now scheduled for 5/6/2019. He was transferred to Mercer County Jail on 3/22/2019. Mercer County neighbors Lawrence County to the north. It's only about a half...

I'm glad that the media seems to be putting attention on DA Weintraub's statement about the system needing to be fixed to keep this from happening again. It would be easy for that to be lost in the coverage a murder this disturbing. Packer would probably end up at SCI Muncy, right?

Triple homicide suspect released, charges dropped After about five delays in her preliminary hearing as a suspect in a triple murder, Jody Hammer won't be having her day in court after all. The Lawrence County District Attorney's office and New Castle police have withdrawn the charges against...

The trial was continued. On 5/8/2019, she's scheduled to have the trial start, a habeas corpus hearing, and miscellaneous criminal hearings. It seems pretty unlikely that all three of those can happen at 9:00 am on the same day, but that's what they have listed.

Damn, Judge Gibbons is a badass. Since I've started keeping up with cases in PA, her name has come up quite a lot, and I'm going to take this as evidence that those cases are going to be in very good hands.

Josh's statement gutted me. It would be shameful if Grace's murder doesn't spark change in adoption services in her area. No child should be placed in a home with such obvious warning signs of abuse. Executing Justice: The discretionary nature of the death penalty in Pennsylvania This article...

Based on the entries on his docket, Procopio wants to represent himself, which seems like a horrible idea. Correspondence relating to that was filed on 3/13/2019. They've also left the option open to push the trial back farther, so we should probably expect it to. Nothing for Cooper, except...

Hammer's preliminary hearing has been moved to 4/9/2019. The day of the murder she received a notice that she was 725 days overdue on the restitution she was required to pay after being entered into the ARD program for stealing a car in Beaver County in 2016. She was scheduled to have a...

No good news. The trial is cancelled. They will be having a hearing on 4/15/2019 instead. It is to have more time for pre-trial motions.

James Aiken did do some good work with the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission. I am kind of confused what the point of him testifying is. I could see if the defense was trying to get him the death penalty that it might make sense to call someone like this that might make jurors feel...

I keep reminding myself that she will probably be worse off interacting with inmates that know what she did than she would be on death row. I'm pretty sure all the women on death row in PA are kept out of the general population.