Ex-trooper plans to appeal life sentence for slaying of Blairsville dentist
A former Pennsylvania state trooper serving a life sentence for slaying a Blairsville dentist has hired a Pittsburgh attorney to handle his appeal.
And the woman who prosecutors say was the motive for the murder has moved, leaving behind unpaid mortgage payments on the home she shared with the trooper, court records show.
Kevin Foley filed formal notice in Indiana County that he intends to appeal his first-degree murder conviction to state Superior Court. The appeal petition, making specific claims to contest his March 18 conviction by a jury, was not included.
Court documents were filed this week by Pittsburgh attorney Matthew Debbis to notify the clerk of courts that he will represent Foley. Greensburg attorneys Richard Galloway and Jeffrey Monzo handled Foley's trial and Common Pleas Court appeal.
Last month, President Judge William Martin refused to consider an appeal by Foley based on an alternate juror's testimony that some jurors were improperly discussing Foley's guilt six days before deliberations began.
Foley, 44, of White Township was convicted of fatally beating and stabbing Dr. John Yelenic in the dentist's home in 2006. Martin sentenced Foley to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
Jurors found that in the early hours of April 13, 2006, Foley took a detour on his way home from a late-night Fraternal Order of Police hockey game in Delmont, stopping in Blairsville to slash and stab Yelenic with a knife before pushing the dentist's head through a pane of glass and cutting his neck.
At the time, Foley, a 13-year state police veteran, was living with the dentist's estranged wife, Michele, as the Yelenics waged a bitter divorce battle.
Michele Yelenic was not charged in connection with Yelenic's murder. According to court filings in a civil damage suit filed by Yelenic's heirs, Michele Yelenic denied any involvement with or knowledge of her husband's slaying.
Yelenic's family was unsuccessful in obtaining a divorce for him after his death.
BCA Home Loan Service, a Simi Valley, Calif.-based finance company, has filed a mortgage foreclosure suit seeking $180,193 against Michele Yelenic. According to a civil complaint filed Nov. 13, Yelenic mortgaged her house at 10 Susan Drive in White Township, just outside Indiana, in October 2008. Dr. Yelenic previously had paid off one mortgage on the home, records show.
According to the complaint, Michele Yelenic moved to Savannah, Ga., in June and has not made a mortgage payment since June 1, the date Foley was sentenced. Court records do not indicate how she spent the loan money.
Sheriff's deputies have been unable to locate Yelenic in Georgia to serve her with paperwork, according to court documents.
