By Tribune-Review

Published: Thursday, November 15, 2012, 3:22 p.m.
Updated: Thursday, November 15, 2012

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the conviction of an Erie County woman on federal charges connected to the bizarre bank robbery plot in which a pizza delivery driver was killed by a bomb locked around his neck.

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, 63, argued that she deserved a new trial because she believed U.S. District Judge Sean McLaughlin was wrong to rule that she was competent to stand trial. She also challenged McLaughlin's decision to allow prosecutors to use statements she made to police before she was indicted and refusing to halt the trial until one of her expert witnesses returned from overseas.

Diehl-Armstrong is serving a life sentence. A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld all of McLaughlin's decisions.

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