Published: June 29, 2008 10:42 pm      

Convicted killer seeks reversal of verdict

EBENSBURG — Convicted murderer James Thompson – serving a life sentence for killing a Johnstown man four years ago – wants his conviction overturned because his trial attorneys did not do a good job.

Thompson, 38, who is incarcerated at SCI-Coal Township, was convicted of first-degree murder in the June 27, 2004, shooting death of Orrin Eichar III.

Judge F. Joseph Leahey will hold a hearing Tuesday on the latest appeal. County prosecutors are opposing a new trial.

Thompson, a Philadelphian who had been staying in Johnstown, was convicted in 2005 in the slaying. He contended that he had been “railroaded” by prosecutors because he had nothing to do with the crime.

His conviction, in a first-round appeal, was upheld by the state Superior Court. He now has filed a post-conviction appeal raising questions about the legal assistance of his court-appointed defense attorneys James DiFrancesco, Thomas Finn and Timothy Sloan.

Thompson now is being represented by a new court-appointed attorney, John Lovette of Johnstown.

In a handwritten appeal, Thompson contended, “Trial counsel did not vigorously cross-examine state witnesses and did not attack nor object to the prosecution referring to evidence that had been ruled inadmissible.”

The prosecution, he alleged, made a robbery motive the centerpiece of its closing when the robbery charge had been thrown out by the judge.

“This misconduct and prejudicial act were paramount in the jury’s guilty verdict,” Thompson said.

He also has raised whether it had been proper for Leahey, during a break in the trial, to walk over to the victim’s mother as the jurors were leaving the courtroom in the 2005 trial.

But Leahey already had addressed that issue when Thompson asked that the judge remove himself from hearing the new appeal.

Leahey refused to do that, saying he is “free of personal bias or interest in the outcome.”

The judge said that it was a 15-second conversation that took place outside the presence of the jury.