UNIONTOWN - A Fayette County man, convicted of killing his girlfriend's son in 1998, got the same result at a second trial, and last week received the same jail sentence. Franklin Weimer, 33, of Hopwood was sentenced again to 22 and 1/2 to 45 years in prison in the 1998 beating death of Zachary Johnson, 2. Prosecutors said Weimer hit Johnson in the head repeatedly with a wooden shower brush on Jan. 24, 1998. The child died of massive brain swelling two days later when he was taken off life support. The sentence, once again, is the maximum allowed by law for the conviction of third-degree murder and child endangerment. Johnson's mother, Julie Johnson-Marinelli, cried and quietly testified that she missed her son. She asked that Weimer receive the maximum penalty. Fayette County Judge Gerald R. Solomon levied the maximum sentence with a stern lecture. "Now, you have twice been found guilty by 24 of your peers. You took an innocent life and God's miracle," he said. Weimer received a new trial because Solomon refused to allow a defense expert to testify at his first trial in 1998. The state Superior Court overturned the verdict and ordered the retrial. The defense expert, however, failed to make a difference. The Lancaster County forensic pathologist testified that Weimer could have accidentally rammed Johnson's head into a table while swinging him around a living room he had shared for less than a month with Johnson and the boy's mother. The scene at the sentencing proceeding differed sharply from the verdict announcement last week. Weimer's family yelled obscenities at the end of the trial, but sat quietly during sentencing.

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