Judge denies bid for new trial for convicted killer
A Muddy Creek Township man convicted last year of third-degree murder was sent back to state prison on Monday after a county judge denied his attorney's request for a new trial.
County Judge William Shaffer issued the ruling last week in response to arguments in the case of Jeremey Sickenberger, 25. Last month Sickenberger's attorney, Marco Attisano, argued that Sickenberger was failed by public defenders during his trial, given an “excessive and harsh” sentence by Shaffer last December when he was ordered to serve 18 to 40 years in prison, and convicted by a jury that didn't have all of the pertinent information and misapplied the law.
Attisano's arguments surrounding Sickenberger's conviction rested on evidence presented at Sickenberger's sentencing that he was diagnosed with a form of autism. Attisano argued that the diagnosis wasn't properly used during trial by public defender Joe Smith, and Shaffer failed to properly instruct the jury about how autism can affect a person's ability to process social situations and express emotions.
Prosecutors, in making their case for third-degree murder in the shooting death of Thomas “T.J.” Stockman, 21, of Portersville — whom Sickenberger shot in the side of the chest on April 17, 2014, during horseplay at his home — argued at trial that Sickenberger showed a lack of remorse and attempted to impede a state police investigation into what occurred that night.
In his decision Shaffer rejected all of Attisano's post sentence motions, saying that evidence of Sickenberger's autism diagnosis could have been obtained before the end of the trial with “the exercise of reasonable diligence.”
The decision did not directly address Attisano's argument that Sickenberger was failed by his public defenders, and that a portion of the postsentence motion was not argued before Shaffer last month, after prosecutors objected and pointed out that Smith was entitled to representation on the matter.
Attisano did not return a message left Monday seeking comment. He has 30 days to appeal the matter to the state's Superior Court.
