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Thread: Patrick Jason Stollar - Pennsylvania

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    Patrick Jason Stollar - Pennsylvania




    Summary of Offense:

    On March 24, 2008, Stollar was sentenced to death in Allegheny County for killing 78-year-old Jean Heck during a June 2003 robbery.

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    March 23, 2008

    Patrick Stollar Sentenced to Death

    Appearing in court this morning with a beard and tangled hair, Patrick Stollar was sentenced to die by lethal injection plus an additional 20 to 40 years in prison for murdering an Upper St. Clair grandmother.

    Stollar, 29, of Washington, Pa., stomped, strangled and stabbed Jean Heck, 78, days after he landscaped her yard. An Allegheny County jury last month decided he should get the death penalty.

    Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman imposed the death sentence and added the additional years for Stollar's burglary and robbery convictions.

    Stollar refused to be sworn in, saying it was against his freedom of religion. He also questioned how his trial was able to proceed when he "signed a truth affidavit that was not rebutted" before Cashman cut him off and told him he could make arguments in his appeals.

    "I have nothing to say, your honor," Stollar said.

    Stollar defended himself in the guilt phase of the trial, arguing that he was mentally ill at the time of the June 4, 2003 killing.

    While dressed in a suit and tie for most of the trial, Stollar wore a white undershirt with gray sweatpants this morning. His white socks were tucked into black dress shoes.

    Heck's daughter, Andrea Kostella, said after the hearing that today's sentencing brings closure to five years uncertainty.

    "It's a very significant day for me. There's a lot of peace and calm to see it reach it's conclusion," Kostella said. "Unlike five years of bad days, today is a positive day."

    Stollar is the first person sentenced to death in Allegheny County since 2002 and becomes the 12th county convict on death row. Pennsylvania hasn't executed anyone since 1999.

    (Source: The Associated Press)

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    Stollar's lawyers make appeal to state Supreme Court

    An attorney for a Washington County man on death row for murdering an Upper St. Clair grandmother argued to the state Supreme Court today that his client deserves a new trial because the trial judge improperly limited his right to testify on his own behalf.

    An Allegheny County jury in 2008 sentenced Patrick Stollar, now 33, of Washington to die by lethal injection for stomping, strangling and stabbing Jean Heck, 78, days after he landscaped her yard. Stollar defended himself in the guilt phase of the trial, arguing he was mentally ill at the time of the June 4, 2003, killing.

    During the case, Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman prevented Stollar from testifying in a rambling, narrative format. The judge gave Stollar the option of having his stand-by attorney question him on the stand or to come up with questions he could ask himself, said Stollar's appellate attorney Ken Snarey.

    "The limitations imposed by the lower court deprived the defendant of his right to testify," Snarey said. "(Stollar's) position is that if the jury was to observe him testifying, they would have been more likely to consider his mental state."

    Assistant District Attorney Nicole Wetherton argued that Cashman gave Stollar two reasonable methods to testify but Stollar declined.

    Heck's daughter, Andrea Kostella, watched the arguments and said it was hard to put into words what her feelings were.

    "We feel confident that the outcome of today's proceedings will further support the justice handed down against Patrick Stollar," she wrote in a brief statement

    http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt...#ixzz1bF98GDQY

  4. #4
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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Stollar's petition for writ of certiorari was DENIED.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Eastern District
    Case Nos.: (595 CAP)
    Decision Date: January 21, 2014

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    On May 2, 2014, Stollar filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/pen...cv00566/216375

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    Governor Corbett Signs Execution Warrants

    Governor Tom Corbett today signed execution warrants for two men, one convicted of killing an elderly woman during a home robbery in Allegheny County, and the other convicted of killing a woman in her vehicle in Berks County.

    Patrick Stollar was convicted in Allegheny County Court of first-degree murder for the beating and stabbing death of 78-year-old Jean Heck, during a robbery at her home on the afternoon of June 4, 2003.

    Glenn Lyons was convicted in Berks County Court of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of Kathy Leibig in May of 2008.

    Both men are incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Greene. Stollar's execution has been scheduled for Aug. 20, 2014. Lyons' execution date has been scheduled for Aug. 21, 2014.

    The execution warrants signed today for Stollar and Lyons were Governor Corbett's 33rd and 34th warrants signed since taking office.

    Executions in Pennsylvania are carried out by lethal injection. For more information, visit the Department of Corrections online at www.cor.state.pa.us and select "Death Penalty'' from the left-side navigation bar.

    Case Background:

    Stollar, now 36, was found guilty by a jury on February 20, 2008 and formally sentenced to death on March 24, 2008 in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.

    Motivated by an interest to "get money and buy nice things," Stollar—a worker at a landscaping company that had done work on Jean Heck's property just days before her murder—went to Ms. Heck's home with the intent of robbing and killing her.

    During the afternoon hours of June 4, 2003, screams were heard coming from Ms. Heck's home in Upper St. Clair Township. Ms. Heck's neighbors, after observing a man driving away in a vehicle, walked over to her home and found Ms. Heck on the floor motionless with large pools of blood surrounding her head and shoulders.

    Police arrived on the scene and found Ms. Heck's purses to be rifled through. At the same time police were investigating the scene, Stollar was at his bank attempting to cash a check drawn from Ms. Heck's account, to which he was unsuccessful.

    Police began a search for Stollar after one of the neighbors gave police a flyer for the landscaping company that had done work on Ms. Heck's property and finding an address linked to Stollar's vehicle on a piece of paper in Ms. Heck's home. After police entered the apartment where Stollar was staying, Stollar confessed to murdering Ms. Heck.

    On June 6, 2003, Stollar took police to a wooded area behind a cemetery where he had buried a knife, blood-spattered clothing, blood covered tissues as well as Ms. Heck's checkbook, wallet and credit cards.

    It was later determined by a pathologist that, although Jean Heck sustained blunt force trauma and wounds to her skull and other parts of her body, the main cause of her death was asphyxiation due to strangulation.

    Lyons, now 49, was found guilty by a jury on June 2, 2011 and formally sentenced to death on July 15, 2011 in the Berks County Court of Common Pleas.

    On May 1, 2008, Kathy Leibig's husband returned home from work to find his wife missing. A few days later, her vehicle was spotted in a parking lot, where Mrs. Leibig's body was found inside with numerous stab wounds to her head and upper body.

    A woman identified as Lyons' girlfriend contacted police on the day Mrs. Leibig's body was found and indicated to police that Lyons contacted her and told her he was "on the run." Police obtained a search warrant for Lyons' apartment and recovered kitchen knives from his apartment.

    Meanwhile, Lyons was in the Lebanon area and saw Justin Grube dealing drugs on the street. Lyons asked to buy cocaine from him and, while awaiting Grube's return with the drugs, a nearby surveillance camera captured Lyons throwing a bag that contained Mrs. Leibig's personal effects, as well as a gray, bloodstained sweatshirt, into a dumpster.

    Lyons was found in Philadelphia during a drug binge and arrested on May 8, 2008. Lyons denied involvement in the murder and indicated he and Mrs. Leibig were the victims of a robbery. According to Lyons, he was knocked out and later found Mrs. Leibig in her car and hugged her body while wearing the gray sweatshirt.

    Trial testimony of a blood spatter expert and other experts conclusively contradicted Lyons' story. Additionally, evidence strongly established the knives found at the crime scene were of the same type found in Lyons' apartment. Grube testified that, during their drug binge, Lyons hinted at hurting Mrs. Leibig several times and indicated he took her personal effects to make the crime look like a robbery. Further, an inmate who came to know Lyons in jail testified that Lyons confessed to killing Mrs. Leibig.

    It was determined from an autopsy that Kathy Leibig's death was a result of approximately 30 stab wounds to her face, chin, neck, shoulder and chest, and that she was likely conscious throughout the entire attack.

    http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...265267521.html
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    Man sentenced to death in killing of Upper St. Clair woman granted new hearing

    By Paula Reed Ward
    The Tribune-Review

    A Washington County man who was convicted of killing an elderly Upper St. Clair woman in 2003 and given the death penalty will get a new sentencing hearing.

    Patrick Stollar, 42, appeared on a video screen from prison during a brief hearing on Thursday before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman.

    His attorney, Thomas N. Farrell, argued that Cashman failed to give the jury in Stollar’s 2008 trial the proper instruction regarding his lack of any previous criminal convictions before it began deliberating his sentence. He was sentenced to die by lethal injection. Acknowledging the error, the prosecution conceded to the new penalty hearing.

    On Thursday, the district attorney’s office said during the proceeding that they were not prepared to say whether they would pursue a new death-penalty phase sentencing hearing for Stollar before a jury, or whether they would allow the sentence to convert to life without parole, the mandatory penalty in a first-degree murder case.

    No one has been executed in Pennsylvania since 1999.

    Stollar was convicted for killing Jean Heck, 78, who was found dead in her home by neighbors on June 4, 2003.

    Police said she had been beaten, strangled, stomped on and stabbed.

    Officers found the address and phone number for Stollar’s mother on a piece of paper on Heck’s kitchen counter, and then went to his place of employment.

    They ultimately found him at an apartment where he’d been staying with a co-worker.

    He admitted then, officers said, “I killed that woman. I murdered that woman.”

    Stollar later provided a full statement to police, telling them he went to Heck’s home to rob and kill her. He also led them to the clothes he had worn that day and the knife he used, which he had buried.

    Stollar, who had at one point been found not competent to stand trial, represented himself during the guilt phase. He was found guilty on all counts on Feb. 20, 2008. Two days later, the jury imposed the death penalty, finding that the aggravating factor that the homicide was committed during the course of a robbery outweighed mitigating evidence including Stollar’s life history and character.

    In his most recent appeal, Farrell argued that Stollar’s sentencing phase counsel, James DePasquale, failed to request a jury instruction in which the panel would be told that it must find as a mitigating factor that Stollar had no significant history of prior criminal convictions.

    During their closing arguments at trial, both the prosecution and defense raised that issue to the jury.

    “Lack of criminal record? Good for you, Mr. Stollar,” said then Allegheny County Assistant District Attorney Mark V. Tranquilli. “Good for you that for 25 years you lived by the rules that we all agree to live by … How is that mitigation? That is what is expected of us as citizens of the United States.”

    But DePasquale said, in his closing, that he found Tranquilli’s words disconcerting.

    “He wants to know how does that become a mitigating factor… Well, I’ll tell him. It is a mitigating factor because in the law, the death penalty law of the state of Pennsylvania, it is clearly and unequivocally a mitigating factor.”

    Still, the jury instruction was not given.

    “Counsel had no reasonable basis for failing to request that Judge Cashman instruct the jury that they must find the mitigating factor that petitioner had no significant history of prior criminal convictions,” Farrell wrote.

    He argued that had that factor been weighed by the jury — if Cashman had provided the instruction — the outcome of the sentence would have been different.

    In its response, the prosecution admitted that the instruction should have been provided.

    “Therefore, the commonwealth is bound to agree that petitioner is entitled to a new penalty proceeding/hearing,” wrote Assistant District Attorney Rusheen R. Pettit.

    https://triblive.com/local/man-sente...d-new-hearing/

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    Man who killed Upper St. Clair woman resentenced to life in prison instead of death

    By Paula Reed Ward
    The Tribune-Review

    A man previously convicted of killing a 78-year-old Upper St. Clair woman in 2003 and given the death penalty appeared in court Tuesday and was resentenced to a life prison term.

    Patrick Stollar, 45, was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2008. Two days later, a jury recommended he be put to death.

    However, Stollar was awarded a new sentencing hearing in 2021 after the prosecution conceded that the jurors should have been instructed by the trial judge, David R. Cashman, that they were required to find Stollar’s lack of a criminal history as a mitigating factor.

    During Tuesday’s hearing, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Elliot Howsie, who took over the case after Cashman retired, ordered Stollar to serve life in prison plus 15 to 30 years for robbery and burglary.

    Stollar, who represented himself during the guilt phase of his trial, was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and burglary in the death of Jean Heck, who was found dead in her home by neighbors on June 4, 2003. She had been beaten, strangled, stomped on and stabbed.

    Officers at the scene found the phone number and address for Stollar’s mother on Heck’s kitchen counter and then went to his place of employment.

    When officers tracked Stollar to an apartment where he’d been staying with a co-worker, he admitted, “I killed that woman,” police said.

    He later told investigators that he went to Heck’s home to rob and kill her. He led police to the clothes he wore that day, as well as the knife he used.

    During the penalty phase of the trial, Stollar presented evidence of mental illness. But the jury agreed that the aggravators in the case — that he committed the killing in the course of a robbery — outweighed any mitigating factors.

    After Stollar was awarded a new sentencing hearing, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office chose not to pursue the death penalty, instead allowing the first-degree murder charge to convert to the mandatory penalty of life in prison without parole.

    Stollar’s current defense attorney, Thomas N. Farrell, told Howsie on Tuesday that his client has done well in state prison.

    Stollar has not received any misconducts since he started serving his time there in 2008 and has a job cleaning the showers.

    “He does well in prison, and he’ll stay there for the rest of his life,” Farrell said.

    https://triblive.com/local/man-who-k...tead-of-death/
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