Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 85

The murder trial for a Greensburg man charged with the 2017 bludgeoning and strangulation death of a Vandergrift woman is set to begin in June. Prosecutors contend that Walter Cable, 28, is one of two men who robbed 34-year-old Ronny Cable. They are not related. She was beaten with a...

A Hempfield woman has pleaded guilty in connection with three incidents last year in which investigators said she assaulted a police officer, a deputy sheriff and a prison guard. Sonya Rae Connors, 53, was sentenced by Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio to serve up to 23 months...

Correction: This story published Feb. 8, 2021, on TribLIVE.com contains information from a court hearing in which Westmoreland County prosecutors successfully argued to modify the pretrial bond of Justin De La Cruz Martinez, who is charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing for an incident police said occurred Nov. 7, 2019,...

The push for help to provide additional covid-19 vaccine doses will continue Monday when Westmoreland County commissioners are scheduled meet with the county’s 11-member state legislative delegation to address future needs. It will be the first joint meeting of the current three-member board of commissioners with state representatives, senators and...

An Allegheny County-based construction contractor will relocate and expand its manufacturing operations from Monessen to Westmoreland County’s I-70 Industrial Park. The deal announced by the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corp. calls for Robinson-based Wyatt Inc. to purchase nearly 20 acres at the South Huntingdon park to serve as the company’s...

Two men were killed and a juvenile was injured in three separate shootings overnight in Pittsburgh. In the first fatal shooting, police said a man was found dead in a vehicle when they responded to multiple 911 calls of shots fired shortly after midnight Saturday on the 2700 block of...

A Derry man sentenced to a 7-to-14-year prison sentence for the delivery of drugs that prosecutors said led to his friend’s fatal overdose now claims he was “induced” to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit. Glenn A. Levtzow, 39, in court documents filed this week asked to...

Westmoreland County’s Republican leaders on Wednesday demanded Pennsylvania Department of Health officials increase the supply of covid-19 vaccines to the county. In a letter sent to Alison Beam, the state’s acting secretary of health, Commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew called for ‘immediate and substantial adjustments” to the distribution of...

Jodie Graft had a simple message to the woman she still blames for her daughter’s overdose death last year in Greensburg. Graft, sobbing, peered over a Plexiglass shield, looked directly at Mary Crimboli-Baker as she stood next her defense lawyer in a Westmoreland County courtroom, and said she wished it...

A Hempfield man was charged with the theft of a wallet from an X-ray scanner at the front entrance of the Westmoreland County Courthouse. Park Police said Verne Klingerman II, 54, used money from the stolen wallet to pay a $30 fine one floor above in the county’s Clerk of...

A Youngwood man will remain in jail to await trial on a charge that he delivered drugs to a woman who died from an overdose in August 2019. Matthew Thomas Caughey pleaded for his release during a court hearing Tuesday as he asked Westmoreland County Judge Christopher Feliciani to be...

The sexual assault and child pornography cases against suspended Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez will be conducted May. Westmoreland County Judge Scott Mears, following a hearing Monday afternoon, ordered jury selection in the case to begin May 14 and for testimony in the trial to start on May 17. “Given...

Pennsylvania Department of Health officials confirmed that Westmoreland County was shortchanged in the number of covid-19 vaccine doses allocated since December as local and regional leaders continue to highlight mounting issues with the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. County Commissioner Doug Chew said analysis of state data found that...

A Westmoreland County jury acquitted a Greensburg man accused of raping an unconscious woman but couldn’t reach a verdict on another charge of sexual assault. The jury deliberated more than three hours and returned a mixed verdict against Emmanuel Lebbie, 25, who prosecutors said assaulted a woman as she slept...

Westmoreland County Transit will provide free rides on its buses and paratransit vehicles to local covid-19 vaccine clinics. Anyone with a scheduled appointment to receive the vaccine is eligible for the service Mondays through Saturdays in the service area, including Westmoreland County and Downtown Pittsburgh. “We wanted to eliminate a...

Westmoreland County will cap grants awarded this spring to local restaurants, taverns and hotels at $20,000. Grants were authorized as part of a $145 million state program approved last month to assist the hospitality industry. County commissioners said Thursday the grant application process is expected to begin within two weeks...

A Scottdale man who confessed to an armed robbery of a woman in a Hempfield parking lot more than four years ago was found not guilty by a jury on Thursday. After about 90 minutes of deliberations, jurors acquitted Norman Jack, 30, of robbery, theft and three other related offenses...

A Scottdale man and his wife told a Westmoreland County jury they were at home and were visited by police at the same time a Blairsville woman claimed he robbed her at gunpoint at a Hempfield shopping center in late 2016. Norman Jack, 30, testified Wednesday in the third day...

A Jeannette man will serve up to 20 years in prison for raping a child. Ronald Lee Rice, 61, pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony charges of rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse in connection with claims made by a teenage girl who told police she was repeatedly sexually assaulted for...

A Westmoreland County prosecutor said Tuesday investigators found DNA evidence that links a Greensburg man to what police contend was the rape of an unconscious woman in a city home in 2019. Testimony in the rape and sexual assault trial of Emmanuel Lebbie, 25, is expected to begin Wednesday before...

A Westmoreland County judge rejected a defense request to dismiss second-degree murder and robbery charges against a Butler woman implicated in the 2019 shooting death of an Armstrong County man in Arnold. Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani ruled prosecutors have presented enough evidence to allow the murder case against...

Sophia King told a Westmoreland County jury Tuesday she had no problem identifying the Black man she claims robbed her at gunpoint in a Hempfield shopping center parking lot more than four years ago. “I see his eyes,” King said as she pointed out a mask-wearing Norman Jack in a...

Westmoreland County commissioners’ plan to create a covid-19 vaccine registry is on hold as county leaders search out a potential third party to help craft a waiting list for inoculations. Commissioners said Monday Excela Health will not participate in the creation of a registry and that it is unlikely the...