Penn Township man again seeking 3rd trial in 2006 homicide
A Penn Township man is trying for the second time to have a judge grant him a third trial on the basis that his attorney was ineffective during a 2008 homicide trial.
Jason P. Maple, 33, through attorney Caroline Roberto, filed an appeal Wednesday under the Post-Conviction Relief Act, seeking a new trial in the May 30, 2006, shooting death of William Teck, 25, of Hempfield. Maple was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence.
Maple claims that his trial attorney, Mark D. Lancaster, failed to call a drug and alcohol expert to testify about Maple's intoxication on the day of Teck's death.
“The need for an expert witness was heightened in his case because defendant was an alcoholic who may not have appeared intoxicated to others,” Roberto wrote in the appeal.
An appeal originally was filed by Roberto in March 2012 after Maple filed one on his own the previous year. Both sought to appeal the conviction to the state Supreme Court, which Lancaster did not do after Maple requested it, according to court filings.
Lancaster testified during a 2013 hearing on the 2012 filing that he did a poor job of defending Maple. Lancaster had been suspended from practicing law in 2011 and moved to Colorado.
Prosecutors said Maple led a group of four men and his girlfriend, Jennifer Vinsek, 33, to Manor after he was told Teck had attempted to rape Vinsek.
Teck and a friend, Patrick Altman, were lured out of a nearby diner to the railroad tracks, where Maple, armed with a shotgun, followed them, prosecutors contended. Maple fired the gun, killing Teck and injuring Altman.
Vinsek was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
The three other men involved in the killing pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and testified against Maple and Vinsek.
A mistrial was granted in May 2008 by the presiding judge during jury deliberations in Maple's case. He was convicted in a second trial later that year.
During that trial, not having an expert to testify to Maple's intoxicated state and alcoholic blackouts was detrimental to the defense, Roberto argued in the filing.
District Attorney John Peck previously said there was sufficient evidence to warrant the first-degree murder conviction.
Renatta Signorini is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-837-5374 or rsignorini@tribweb.com.
