Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 18 of 18

Thread: Patrick Ray Haney, Jr. - Pennsylvania Death Row

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217



    Jury delivers verdict in Fayette County death penalty trial

    Jurors have found Patrick Haney Jr. guilty of first-degree murder in the beating death of his girlfriend's 4-year-old son.

    A judge says a Fayette County man charged with killing his girlfriend's 4-year-old son can face the death penalty if he's convicted of first-degree murder at trial.

    Haney, of Point Marion, Fayette County, could face the death penalty in the death of 4-year-old Trenton St. Clair, the child of his former girlfriend, Heather Forsythe. He was also convicted of endangering the welfare of children.

    "I couldn't be happier. It's been too long. Trenton is finally going to lay in rest. No more doubt in his mind that the guy that did this is punished now. The truth is out," the boy's paternal grandmother, Sharon Smitley, said.

    During closing arguments Tuesday, just 26 hours after the trial opened, prosecutors passed around autopsy photos to jurors. They depicted St. Clair's bruised body on the autopsy table. "I did get a glimpse of the pictures. That was so bad. Really upsetting," said Smitley.

    Smitley's son Joseph St. Clair is Trenton's father. He is currently living in Georgia with his girlfriend and their child.

    The boy's tearful mother was the first witness to take the stand Monday against Haney.

    Forsythe struck a plea deal to lesser charges last week in return for her testimony. She told the jury she saw Haney beating her son, leaving bruises all over him, but said she didn't speak out because she feared Haney. Under her agreement to plead guilty to endangering the welfare of a child, Forsythe could get a sentence ranging from two and a half to five years.

    Prosecutors maintain the beating was systematic and went on for weeks inside the couple's home.

    Pennsylvania State Police Trooper James Pierce testified that during questioning, Haney at first claimed the boy was clumsy and had fallen down steps, fallen from a desk and fallen from a park draw bridge.

    Pierce testified that when Haney was confronted with the mother's claims and with word that doctors reported the child was a victim of abuse, Haney dropped his head and appeared to cry. The trooper testified that Haney then admitted to hitting the child because "he wouldn't listen sometimes." Pierce said Haney told him he was trying to discipline the boy, not hurt him.

    When testimony resumes Tuesday on the second day of the trial, a doctor who treated St. Clair in the emergency room of Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., will testify.

    The child died on Sept. 13, 2011.

    The same jury will return to Judge Nancy Vernon's court Wednesday morning when the sentencing phase opens. Jurors will then hear more testimony and closing arguments before deliberating if Haney should be sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty.

    http://www.wtae.com/news/fayette-cou...#ixzz2vgmBioa4
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  2. #12
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Jury Recommends Death Penalty For Child Beating Death Suspect

    A jury has deemed that a man found guilty in the case of a beating death of a child in Fayette County should face the death penalty.

    On Tuesday, Haney was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of 4-year-old Trenton St. Clair. It only took the jury 90 minutes to reach a guilty verdict.

    Today, Haney showed no emotion as the jury’s decision was announced.

    Prosecutors claimed Haney regularly beat the child and had an excuse for every bruise.

    On Monday, the child’s mother, Heather Forsythe, testified against Haney after reaching a plea bargain. There will be no homicide charges for her after pleading guilty to reckless endangerment charges and she will face two-and-a-half to five years in jail.

    Three days before he died, Forsythe described seeing Haney abusing the child.

    “He was standing over my child,” she said. “I saw him hitting and slapping my child and he kicked him with the side of his foot. Trenton was crying.”

    She testified she told authorities he fell at the urging of Haney.

    “I told police he fell down the steps in hopes I’d be taken somewhere else. I told them I wanted to be separated from Patrick.”

    But the 4-year-old was pronounced dead at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown. Later Forsythe told police Haney abused the boy.

    http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/...death-suspect/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  3. #13
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    2,740
    March 12, 2014

    Fayette jury sentences man to death for fatal beating of 4-year-old boy

    A Fayette County man facing lethal injection for the beating death of a 4-year-old boy showed no emotion on Wednesday when a jury rendered the death sentence after two hours of deliberations.

    Patrick Ray Haney, 29, of Point Marion sat stone-faced between his two attorneys as jurors were polled individually on their verdict before Judge Nancy Vernon.

    The six men and six women on Tuesday convicted Haney of first-degree homicide in the September 2011 beating of Trenton Lewis St. Clair.

    Trenton's mother, Heather Louise Forsythe, 30, testified Haney slapped and kicked Trenton on Sept. 10 and would not let her take her son to a hospital until he stopped breathing on Sept. 13.

    A medical examiner testified Trenton died of peritonitis resulting from a closed abdominal injury caused by battering.

    Trenton's paternal grandmother, Sharon Smitley of Smithfield, said her “heart just mellowed, like somebody lifted something off of me” as the verdict was read.

    “Trenton kept me strong through this because he knew I had to fight for him,” said a tearful Smitley. “We can actually go to sleep at night with a smile on our face again. Justice has been served.”

    Vernon immediately imposed the death sentence, ordering Haney to report to the State Correctional Institution at Rockview.

    “This court is of the opinion Trenton Lewis St. Clair is now in a place where there is no more abuse and pain,” Vernon said. “May God in his infinite goodness have mercy on your soul.”

    Haney's mother, Deanna Marie Coburn of Fairmont, W.Va., was in the courtroom for the verdict. She left immediately after it was announced.

    Coburn, her mother and one of Haney's cousins asked jurors to spare his life.

    Coburn testified that when Haney was a child, she had an alcohol problem and once spent four years in prison for a DUI-related death. She testified she left her only child with relatives when she wanted to go out drinking.

    “I had a drinking issue,” Coburn testified. “I wasn't going to just leave him with just anybody to go out and get drunk.”

    Smitley asked jurors to impose a death sentence.

    “The manner in which he (Trenton) died was cold and heartless. He allowed Trenton to suffer,” Smitley testified. “Do what's right — not just for me, but for Trenton.”

    Smitley testified Trenton was a tough, free-spirited child for whom “the sky wasn't even the limit.”

    He was “one of the sweetest kids you will ever encounter,” she said.

    Every day since his death has been a struggle, and time has failed to ease her pain, she said.

    “February 17, 2011, at the age of 4, was Trenton's last birthday,” Smitley testified. “Why? Because that man, Patrick Haney, had taken him away from me. How can a man abuse an innocent child?
    What can cause such hatred and anger?”

    Haney testified he was shuttled around to different homes as a child, bouncing among two sets of grandparents and his parents. He was homeless twice, he testified.

    His grandmother, Joanne Coburn of Fairmont, testified that when Haney was 13, he called and begged her to take him away from his father's house.

    “He called me and said he can't stand no more — (the way) his dad was treating him and beating him,” she said through tears.

    Assistant District Attorney Mark Mehalov argued that a sentence of life in prison would not have been a harsh enough punishment for Haney.

    “Does Trenton's grandmother get to go, whether it be behind glass or face-to-face, to visit?” Mehalov said. “Does his family get to do that? No. They get to walk out in a field of tombstones and hopefully stand over a grave and remember.”

    Defense attorney Charles Carpinelli asked for a life sentence.

    “Prosecutors downplay prison life, but sometimes I think it's harsher than death,” Carpinelli told the jury. “That person has to be there the rest of their life, consider their act, live with the violence, and never feel safe again.”

    An emergency room doctor, Hollyn Larabee, testified Trenton's case was the worst incident of child abuse she had seen. He was covered in bruises when he arrived at the hospital.

    “He was not breathing,” Larabee told jurors on Tuesday. “There were no signs of life whatsoever.”

    The peritonitis would have left Trenton vomiting, lethargic and in severe pain, testified Dr. Matrina Schmidt, former deputy chief medical examiner for West Virginia.

    But his life likely could have been saved with a simple surgery for peritonitis, an inflammation of the inner wall of the abdomen, Larabee testified.

    Forsythe, who initially was charged with criminal homicide for failing to get medical treatment for her son, testified under a plea deal that allowed her to plead guilty to a charge of child endangerment. She will serve up to five years in prison.

    http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/5...#ixzz2xm7egzNz

  4. #14
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Point Marion man appeals death sentence in fatal beating

    Nine photographs depicting the badly beaten body of a 4-year-old boy should not have been shown to jurors who sentenced a Fayette County man to death, according to an appeal filed by his attorney.

    A jury in March convicted Patrick Ray Haney, 30, of Point Marion of first-degree homicide and imposed the death penalty for the September 2011 beating of Trenton Lewis St. Clair.

    Trenton's mother, Heather Louise Forsythe, 30, testified that Haney slapped and kicked Trenton on Sept. 10 and would not let her take the boy to a hospital until he stopped breathing on Sept. 13.

    A medical examiner testified Trenton died of peritonitis after suffering a closed abdominal injury caused by battering.

    Haney's attorney, Jeremy Davis of Uniontown, has appealed the sentence to the state Supreme Court.

    In a filing on Wednesday, Davis argued Judge Nancy Vernon erred by allowing jurors to view the photographs as they deliberated. He said the photographs “were highly prejudicial” and grounds for reversal.

    Davis argues Vernon erred when she failed to dismiss first- and third-degree murder charges and allegations of torture prior to trial. The defense attorney contends there wasn't enough evidence to prove Haney killed the boy, tortured him or had specific intent to kill.

    http://triblive.com/news/fayette/603...#ixzz30QmbMxsx

  5. #15
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Pennsylvania v. Haney


    Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

    Opinion Date: December 29, 2015

    In 2011, Heather Forsythe and Appellant Patrick Haney presented at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia with Forsythe’s four-year-old son, Trenton Lewis St. Clair. When Trenton arrived, he had neither a pulse nor signs of life. Forsythe and Appellant told emergency personnel that Trenton had fallen down a flight of stairs. Attempts to resuscitate the boy were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital. An examining physician's testimony at trial stated that it was “immediately evident that the child had been beaten. He was covered in bruises. There was blood around his mouth.” Forsythe gave a written statement to police explaining that she had observed Appellant physically abusing Trenton. Appellant would later be charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment. He ultimately received the death penalty for these crimes. His appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was automatic. After review, the Court concluded all of appellant's claimed of error at trial were meritless, and it affirmed his conviction and sentence.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  6. #16
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Pa. state Supreme Court Oks conviction, death in toddler slaying

    UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) – The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty and first-degree murder conviction of a man charged in the physical abuse death of his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son.

    Thirty-one-year-old Patrick Haney Jr., was convicted and sentenced by a Fayette County jury last year in the 2011 death of 4-year-old Trenton St. Clair.

    Haney has denied harming the boy and his attorney argued that even if the abuse occurred as prosecutors claimed, they didn’t prove Haney specifically intended to kill the boy.

    The high court rejected that in upholding the conviction and death sentence on Thursday.

    The boy’s mother, Heather Forsythe, is serving 2½ to five years in prison after pleading guilty to child endangerment by not seeking immediate medical attention for the boy, who was abused over several weeks.

    http://wkbn.com/2016/01/02/pa-state-...ddler-slaying/

  7. #17
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Haney's petition for certiorari.

    Docketed: May 2, 2016
    Linked with 15A954
    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Eastern District
    Case Nos.: (698 CAP)
    Decision Date: December 29, 2015
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #18
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
    Location
    New Jersey, unfortunately
    Posts
    4,382
    On December 22, 2016, Haney filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    https://dockets.justia.com/docket/pe...cv01901/235148
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •