An appeal filed by a former state trooper in the murder of a Blairsville dentist is 10 years too late, state Deputy Attorney General William Stoycos argued Thursday.

Plus, evidence the defense claims it recently obtained wouldn’t have any impact on the trial jury’s decision to convict Kevin J. Foley of first- degree murder in 2009 in the fatal beating and slashing of Dr. John Yelenic, Stoycos said.

“He doesn’t get a do-over, now, all these years later,” he said.

But defense attorney Michael Smith requested the appeal be allowed to continue, so an evidentiary hearing can be held.

Foley, 60, is serving a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole at SCI Mahanoy.

“The difference between parole and no parole for the rest of your life would be a miscarriage of justice,” Smith argued.

Foley, formerly of White Township, talked quietly with his attorney before the hearing started at the Indiana County courthouse. He wore orange prison garb and glasses with his hair combed to the side.

He was arrested more than a year after the death of Yelenic, 39, at his home on April 13, 2006. Foley had been living with Yelenic’s estranged wife, Michele Yelenic, who was going through a bitter divorce with the dentist.

During his 2009 trial, Foley claimed he didn’t do it. In a more recent petition for a pardon, Foley admitted to his involvement, Stoycos said.

“He’s confessed to it now,” Stoycos said. “Those are some big lies that were told in the past.”

But Smith cautioned that “he has not admitted to murder, but to killing him,” which Smith suggested, if given a new trial and opportunity for a different defense strategy, might result in a lesser verdict that wouldn’t carry a mandatory life sentence.

State appeals courts have upheld the conviction, and Foley’s appeal under the Post-Conviction Relief Act was due in 2014, Stoycos said. It was filed in 2024.

There was testimony during the trial that Foley attempted to have Yelenic investigated for child abuse, but those reports were determined to be unfounded, Stoycos said.

The new evidence the defense reported receiving is a letter that indicates there may be additional information on the abuse investigations that was unknown to Foley during trial.

Stoycos argued that wouldn’t have any bearing on the trial’s outcome and there’s no way to know if it would’ve changed the defense’s strategy.

“We only have Mr. Foley’s word on that,” Stoycos said.

But Smith believes additional information about the abuse investigations against Yelenic, had it been known at the time of trial, may have had an impact on the defense strategy that sought to protect Yelenic’s estranged wife and child from testifying. The defense could have presented an argument that it was a crime of passion, and possibly led to a lesser conviction.

“He wouldn’t have felt compelled to protect them from the system,” Smith argued.

Evidence presented at trial connecting Foley to the murder included a shoe print, DNA under Yelenic’s fingernail and a scratch on Foley’s forehead the next day.

President Judge Thomas Bianco asked plenty of questions to both attorneys during the hearing.

“My decision will definitely be made within the next 30 days,” he said.

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