A New Stanton man serving a 40-year prison sentence for the hit-and-run death of a man jogging on Christmas Eve in 2016 claims he was improperly convicted of murder.

In an appeal filed Tuesday, Matthew Ramsay claims evidence against him during a three-day jury trial in March was insufficient to warrant a conviction of third-degree murder. Jurors also found Ramsay guilty of vehicular homicide, driving while under the influence of drugs and fleeing the scene of a crash. He was acquitted of vehicular homicide while intoxicated and drunken driving.

Ramsay, 32, was sentenced in June to serve 15 to 40 years in prison for a crime that Westmore­land County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Feliciani called selfish and cowardly.

Prosecutors said Ramsay was under the influence of drugs as he deliberately swerved his 1995 Saturn into the oncoming lane of traffic on Ruffsdale-Alverton Road in East Huntingdon and hit Joseph Cummins, 49, from behind as he jogged with his dog. Ramsay fled the scene and did not seek help for Cummins, police said.

Prosecutors said Ramsay had consumed methadone, a drug he was prescribed in 2014 for a heroin addiction, as well as the anti-depressant drug Xanax and marijuana before the crash.

Ramsay did not testify during his trial, but jurors heard a recorded police interview in which he denied he was under the influence of drugs and that he did not realize he had hit Cummins before he fled the scene.

Police said that after Ramsay fled the scene, he attempted to hide his damaged vehicle and went Christmas shopping.

In the appeal filed by defense attorney James Robinson, Ramsay said the verdict went against the weight of the evidence and claimed no eyewitnesses testified he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the crash.

“Without the testimony of any persons who witnessed the crash or evidence that the defendant was using drugs within the time frame, which was relevant to the incident, the commonwealth was unable to establish that the defendant acted maliciously as opposed to negligently,” Robinson wrote.

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