Hempfield man wants new trial, claims self-defense strategy was ignored

A Hempfield man serving a 40-year prison sentence for the attempted murder of his girlfriend in 2011 is asking for a new trial.

Lawrence Redman, 51, was in court on Thursday for an appeal hearing. He contends his former lawyer ignored his instructions to argue self-defense during his trial.

“My argument is my counsel discussed self-defense with me, he got me to testify and didn’t offer that (to jurors),” Redman argued. Redman is serving as his own lawyer for the appeal.

A Westmoreland County jury convicted Redman in 2012 in connection with shooting 28-year-old Anamaire Henderson four times, causing injuries that left her paralyzed. Prosecutors said he fired a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol at close range as Henderson got out of her car in front of her mother’s home in Salem. She said she had been sleeping in the vehicle after driving off following an argument between the couple in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Hempfield.

Redman contended he did not intend to shoot Henderson and that she ran into four warning shots he fired.

Chris Haidze, an assistant public defender who represented Redman at his trial, testified Thursday that self-defense was not a viable argument.

“There were no defense arguments to be made. Your statement said you did not mean to shoot her,” Haidze testified.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani did not make a ruling on the appeal on Thursday but indicated Redman’s self-defense argument would likely have failed at trial.

“The jury would have to believe you were intentionally shooting at the victim to save your life and that’s not how the testimony went,” Feliciani said.

The judge said he will issue a ruling on the appeal in about a month.