A federal appeals court issued a mixed ruling in remanding a civil rights violation case filed by a Kittanning man serving life in prison for a 1990 murder in Butler County back to U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.

A panel of judges in the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals last week affirmed, reversed and vacated parts of an appeal self-filed by Steven David Vogt, 50, an inmate at SCI Fayette, in March. The judges also remanded the case.

Vogt and Walter Cowfer, now 52, of Export, were found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery by a jury on Jan. 31, 1991.

They were implicated with three other people in the death of 60-year-old Francis Landry. Authorities believe the group in May 1990 conspired to rob Landry, who had recently moved from his Portersville-area home to Cowfer's place. Vogt and Cowfer reportedly pelted him with rocks for hours as he begged for his life, until he drowned in a strip mine pond in Clay Township.

An autopsy said Landry suffered broken ribs, bruises and scrapes before he died of asphyxiation due to drowning. Landry's body was discovered hours after his death by divers who had been using the pond for training.

Vogt and Cowfer were sentenced by then-Butler County Common Pleas Judge Martin O'Brien to serve life in prison, plus 3 to 6 years.

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