A Hempfield man’s third appeal of his first-degree murder conviction for the 2012 killing of his wife has been rejected by a Westmoreland County judge.
Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Mears ruled there was no evidence to support the claims made by David Stahl that his former appeals lawyer did not properly challenge allegations that his 2014 trial was biased because an all woman jury was seated to hear the case and a judge’s refusal to move the case to another jurisdiction.
Stahl, now 51, is serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors said Stahl strangled his 37-year-old wife, Rebecca, a popular teacher in the Derry Area School District, burned her belongings, lied to family members about her whereabouts and after several days dumped the body in a brush-covered field near Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity.
Stahl’s initial appeal was rejected and a second challenge filed in 2018 that claimed his trial lawyers authored an insufficient defense was also unsuccessful.
Stahl in 2020 filed a third appeal without the help of a lawyer and claimed his all-female jury was biased against him and that his trial lawyers didn’t seek to move the case out of Westmoreland County because of pretrial publicity.
Attorney Ken Noga was appointed last year to review Stahl’s claims in court documents filed earlier this year.
The new lawyer wrote there was no basis for Stahl’s latest appeal.
Mears concurred and dismissed the appeal. In doing so the judge said Stahl’s first appeals lawyer took appropriate steps to challenge the conviction.
“The fact that she was unsuccessful does not mean that her counsel was ineffective,” Mears wrote.
