Published: February 25, 2008 11:43 pm            

Bail hearing rescheduled for Notestine murder suspect

BEDFORD – A Bedford County man whose murder trial ended in a hung jury this month will have to wait a little longer to make his case that he should be freed on bail pending retrial.

Joseph W. Clark originally was scheduled to be in court Wednesday to argue to a judge that the evidence against him is weak and that bail should be set.

The hearing now is set for March 12, a delay requested by defense attorney Thomas Crawford, who could not be reached Monday for comment.

“I didn’t request it. We want to get this thing moving as quickly as we can,” Bedford County District Attorney William Higgins said Monday.

Meanwhile, the county where a new jury will be selected to hear the Clark case should be known by the end of the week, a spokesman for the state Supreme Court said.

Clark, 49, of Everett is asking Judge Daniel Howsare to set nominal bail and release him from jail until his retrial, which must be held by May, according to state law.

Clark is charged in the April 30, 2000, murder of Holly Notestine, a 25-year-old mother of two.

Following 10 days of testimony and six days of deliberations, jurors from Butler County were unable to reach a verdict, and Howsare declared a mistrial on Feb. 9.

The jury foreman told The Tribune-Democrat that the vote was 10-2 to convict.

He said most jurors saw plenty of circumstantial evidence linking Clark to Notestine’s death.

He has been in the Bedford County Jail since his April 30, 2005, arrest.

Higgins will argue that state law does not allow for bail in a capital punishment case.

“Article 14 of the Pennsylvania Constitution says no bail in a capital murder case,” Higgins said. “We’re going to stand on the judge’s prior decision and he stayed in jail.”

A year ago, Clark sought and was rebuffed in his efforts to get out of jail on bail because of the length of time between his arrest and trial.

Much of that delay was because of appeals to the state Superior Court on pretrial issues by the defense and prosecution.

A date for the second trial will be set after the state determines from which county jurors will be selected and a date is determined for both sides to pick that jury.

“It’s our goal to have one (a county) by the end of the week and to have everyone notified by the end of the week,” state court spokesman Art Heinz said.

An out-of-county jury is being bussed in because of pretrial publicity in the case.

Higgins said he again will seek the death penalty if Clark is convicted of first-degree murder.

        

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