Defense seeks court's help to get ballistics evidence in Loyalhanna murder case

Attorneys for an Indiana County man on death row for murdering three family members sought the court’s help on Friday to get firearm evidence to their ballistics expert.

Attorney Brian Aston said he needs a court order to get evidence from the clerk of courts, state police and possibly the district attorney shipped to a Texas-based expert.

“It has to be somebody who is permitted to ship firearms through the mail, which I am not,” Aston said.

He represents Kevin Murphy, 60, who was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the April 2009 slayings of his mother, Doris Murphy, 69; sister Kris Murphy, 43; and aunt Edith Tietge, 81. Each was shot in the back of the head with a .22-caliber revolver at the family-owned glass repair shop in Loyalhanna.

Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio allowed the defense in October to use up to $2,500 in taxpayer money to hire the private ballistics expert as part of an attempt for Murphy to win an appeal of his murder convictions.

Aston and attorney Ken Noga contend ballistics evidence regarding the gun prosecutors said Murphy used was not properly challenged during the 2013 trial. The defense wants the expert to review the weapon, bullet fragments, shell casings and other evidence that prosecutors said proves Murphy committed the murders.

But locating all of that evidence has proven to be a challenge, Aston said.

“The state police couldn’t be exactly sure where every piece of evidence was,” he said.

District Attorney John Peck said he would check in his office for any evidence leftover from the trial. Bilik-DeFazio asked Aston to provide a list of evidence he is seeking and she would sign an order directing state police to handle shipping it, as long as there were no objections from Peck. Murphy appeared by video from state prison.

Prosecutors at Murphy’s 2013 trial contended the women were killed because they disapproved of Murphy’s romantic relationship with a married woman and didn’t want her to live at the family home near Saltsburg, Indiana County. Police found the gun on the shop’s floor.

A previous appeal filed by Murphy was rejected by the state Supreme Court. Defense attorneys said they are preparing a new appeal that is expected to claim Murphy was not adequately represented at his trial by his private attorneys.

Murphy was scheduled for execution in late 2016. That was stayed while he continues with appeals.