Judge denies Hempfield man's claim of ineffective counsel

A Westmoreland County judge has denied the appeal of a Hempfield man who claimed he received an inadequate defense during his 2012 trial in which he was accused of the attempted murder of his girlfriend.

Common Pleas Judge Christopher Feliciani issued a 10-page opinion in which said there was no evidence to support the appeal filed by Lawrence Darnell Redman, who during a hearing last month claimed his former trial lawyer ignored his instructions to claim that he acted in self defense.

Redman was convicted of shooting 28-year-old Anamaire Henderson four times, causing injuries that left her paralyzed. Prosecutors said that on Sept. 24, 2011, 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, who is serving a 40-year prison sentence, contended he did not intend to shoot Henderson and that she ran into four warning shots he fired.