Westmoreland County Judge Meghan Bilik-DeFazio last week filed a brief in State Supreme Court in the appeal of Kevin Murphy’s conviction for the murders of his mother, sister, and aunt in 2009. Prosecutors said Murphy shot the women because they did not support his relationship with a married woman.
The judge ruled in March that mistakes made by Murphy’s original defense team at his trial 2013 trial were not egregious enough to warrant a retrial. Murphy contends that his attorneys erred in not having him present when the jury visited the crime scene, and that his attorneys did not investigate other suspects who might have shot the three victims.
Prosecutors said Murphy, who lived in Saltsburg, shot the women because they did not support his relationship with a married woman. The murders occurred at the family glass business in Loyalhanna Township, across the Indiana/Westmoreland County line.
The now-64-year-old Murphy filed his brief before the State Supreme Court on July 16th. In his appeal, he specifically named two other possible suspects, one of them the boyfriend at the time of the married woman involved with Murphy; and Jack Edmunson Jr., a former Saltsburg police officer who was later convicted of the 2013 murder of Tunnelton gun shop owner Frank Petro.
