Appeal denied for Donora man found guilty of assaulting pregnant girlfriend

A Westmoreland County judge on Thursday denied the appeal of a Donora man convicted earlier this year in a brutal assault against his pregnant girlfriend.

In a 23-page opinion, Common Pleas Court Judge Rita Hathaway ruled there was no basis for the appeal filed by Travis Magash, who was convicted of aggravated assault, strangulation and simple assault after a three-day jury trial in May.

Prosecutors said Magash, 34, threw his girlfriend, who was seven months pregnant, on to a couch in her Hunker home and repeatedly hit her in the head, face and mouth in June 2018. He then choked her unconscious and attempted to revive her in a bathtub, according to trial testimony.

Magash was sentenced in September to serve 9 to 30 years in prison.

In his appeal filed in October, Magash claimed he should have a new trial because the judge did not delay the case to allow the defense to review 40 letters prosecutors said he wrote to his victim while in jail. Prosecutors introduced portions of eight letters during the trial in which he urged his girlfriend to recant her accusations that she was assaulted.

“At no time did the defendant deny authorship of the letters. As indicated in the record, defendant knew he was going to trial. As the author of the letters the defendant should have known of the contents of the letters,” Hathaway wrote.

The judge also denied Magash’s claims that she abused her discretion to impose lengthy consecutive sentences that totaled up to 30 years in prison. Hathaway said each of the sentences imposed were within state guidelines.