STATE
UNIONTOWN — A Western Pennsylvania man serving a prison term in the shooting death of his 12-year-old son is seeking a trial or a new hearing in the case.
Forty-one-year-old Michael Muha Jr. of Fayette County pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter last year in the November 2008 death of Michael Muha III. Authorities said the boy was shot as Muha struggled with a woman over a shotgun during a domestic dispute at their home about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh.
Muha was originally charged with criminal homicide but prosecutors dropped that count in exchange for his plea. A Pittsburgh newspaper says his petition filed Thursday cites what he calls new evidence from a former neighbor and also faults the advice of his former attorney.
ALLENTOWN — An airport in eastern Pennsylvania that is dealing with a feral cat problem has announced plans to trap the felines and send them to a farm — not euthanize them.Lehigh Valley International Airport has reached an agreement with the Allentown group No Nonsense Neutering.An Allentown newspaper reports the airport plans to have the cats trapped, spayed or neutered and then sent to a farm.Animal lovers were upset last month when the airport said it would consider killing the cats.Martha Kahan, president of No Nonsense Neutering, says the new agreement is a "win-win."On Saturday, she trapped three of the cats and she says she plans to keep trapping them until she gets them all.
PITTSBURGH — Authorities in Western Pennsylvania say a man and woman have been arrested after allegedly leaving three young children in a minivan while gambling at a casino.Officials said security guards at the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh were alerted at 3:41 p.m. Saturday that the children were alone in the vehicle in the parking garage. They say the 3- and 10-year-old boys were left with baby bottles, diapers and baby wipes for the 10-month-old girl.Officials say surveillance cameras indicated the woman had left two hours earlier to go into the casino, while the man left about a half-hour before the children were found. Officials say the Washington County residents are facing charges of endangering the welfare of children and leaving infants in a motor vehicle.
ERIE — Jurors in Western Pennsylvania were to resume deliberations today in the case of a woman charged with plotting to force a pizza delivery driver to rob a bank wearing a metal bomb collar that exploded shortly after the August 2003 heist.The Erie panel heard closing arguments Thursday and deliberated all day Friday without reaching a verdict in the armed bank robbery and other charges against 61-year-old Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong. The defense argues that she is being framed and also says her mental disorders make it unlikely she could focus on such a plot.Prosecutors say two men also were involved in the plot that led to the death of Brian Wells. One has since died of cancer. The other, 57-year-old Kenneth Barnes, pleaded guilty and is serving 45 years in prison. He testified Diehl-Armstrong was heavily involved in the scheme.
