Published: August 27, 2008 07:57 am      

Man who pleaded guilty to two murders now seeks trial

EBENSBURG — Nathan Fortson, the two-time killer whose victims included an Ebensburg area woman, is attempting again to withdraw his guilty pleas and go on trial.

This time, Fortson is complaining that his attorney – public defender Patricia Moore – “lied about the workings of a trial by jury so I would take a plea.”

Fortson, 29, originally a Huntingdon County resident, is serving two consecutive life sentences in the kidnapping and slaying of 74-year-old Velda Malloy of Cambria Township and the murder of an Altoona man in Huntingdon County in 2006.

Fortson, who was living in Ebensburg at the time of the murders, is incarcerated at SCI-Fayette in LaBelle.

Judge F. Joseph Leahey, who was the trial judge, will hold a hearing Tuesday on Fortson’s motion. Leahey has appointed attorney John Kasaback to represent the defendant in the new appeal.

In a handwritten motion seeking a new lawyer, Fortson said, “I was coerced, pressured and forced to enter guilty pleas” based on the misleading information from Moore.

But Moore said Tuesday, “I’m perfectly satisfied that Mr. Fortson obtained the best possible plea by avoiding a possible death sentence. He absolutely understood what he was doing (in entering the plea), and I’ll be testifying to that fact at the hearing.”

The murders took place in a four-day span in May 2006.

In a plea deal worked out with prosecutors in both counties, Fortson pleaded guilty to both slayings in December that year and was sentenced to consecutive life terms.

He tried to withdraw his pleas a month later, complaining that, because of information supplied by then Huntingdon District Attorney Robert Stewart, he had been placed “in the hole” – restrictive housing – at SCI-Huntingdon.

His deal with prosecutors, he contended, included his being placed in with the general population. That was disputed by both Stewart and Cambria County District Attorney Patrick Kiniry, who said an inmate’s housing arrangements are up to state corrections authorities.

In late 2007, the state Superior Court rejected Fortson’s appeal, ruling that it was filed too late. And, even if had been timely, the state court said there was no legal basis to order a trial because there was no showing of a “manifest injustice” to Fortson.

Huntingdon County Court Administrator Deborah Higgins said a similar letter had been sent to the court there but, as of Tuesday, nothing has been scheduled on it.