After disappearing from Westmoreland County’s court ledgers for many months, the Kevin Murphy murder case has resurfaced, with a new team of attorneys filing an appeal of the 64-year-old former Saltsburg man’s conviction for shooting to death his mother, sister, and aunt at the family’s glass business in Loyalhanna Township.
Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio yesterday scheduled a hearing for April 14th for the presentation of evidence by defense attorneys Brian Aston and Ken Noga, who assert that Murphy could not have done the shootings because he was feeding cattle at his farm at the time.
Instead, Aston and Noga propose two other potential suspects, one of them Jack Edmunson, the former Saltsburg police officer convicted in 2014 of the murder of Tunnelton gun shop owner Frank Petro. He was a first responder at the time of the 2009 shootings and was already at the glass business when other first responders arrived. The appeal identifies the other potential suspect as Susan McGuire, Murphy’s paramour who took over the business after Murphy’s arrest. McGuire denied any involvement in the murders and passed a lie detector test during the investigation.
The appeal also claims numerous mistakes by the trial judge and the previous defense attorneys, and misconduct by the jury.
Murphy was sentenced to death after being convicted in 2013 of the deaths of Doris Murphy, Kris Murphy, and Edith Tietge.
