The lawyer for a McKeesport man convicted of first-degree murder at a New Stanton motel is accusing prosecutors of misconduct during a 2016 trial.

Attorney Chris Rand Eyster said prosecutors failed to adequately disclose key information regarding pending federal charges against an eyewitness.

The eyewitness testified that she saw Christopher Smarr, who was 17 years old, fire one shot from a handgun during a drug transaction at the Garden Inn hotel on March 15, 2015, killing Brandon Gray, 31, of New Kensington.

Prosecutors claim Smarr, now 26, purchased $950 of crack from Gray in a hotel room, followed him down a hallway and demanded the return of the money. When Gray refused, Smarr pulled a gun and fired, according to prosecutors. Following a weeklong trial in 2016, Smarr was convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, robbery and other related offenses.

He was sentenced to serve 45 years to life in prison.

Smarr is now seeking a new trial, claiming his original lawyer failed to provide an adequate defense and that he should have challenged the sentence as being excessive.

As part of that appeal, the defense argued during a hearing on Friday that it should be allowed to expand its claim to include allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.

Prosecutors did not disclose details of a federal drug case against an eyewitness to the shooting, according to the defense. Eyster also claims prosecutors improperly pushed conflicting theories of the case to the jury, suggesting that Smarr was both the shooter and an accomplice to the murder. That potential accomplice testified for the prosecution but was not charged in the case, Eyster claimed.

Prosecutors refuted Smarr’s new arguments and asked that the defense not be permitted to amend the appeal.

“What they’re doing is is throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks,” said Assistant District Attorney Adam Barr.

A Pennsylvania Superior Court judge panel in 2019 rejected Smarr’s first appeal in which he claimed he received an unfair trial because the eyewitness in the case against him, a Muslim woman, was allowed to wear a scarf over her face for religious reasons. The defense claimed the face covering prevented jurors from seeing demeanor of the witness during her testimony.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio ordered both the defense and prosecutors to submit additional written arguments before a ruling is issued on the new appeal.

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