Westmoreland County Judge Meagan Bilik-Defazio yesterday ruled that 32-year-old Ray Shetler Jr. of New Florence will stand trial in June for the shooting death of St. Clair Township Police Officer Lloyd Reed Jr., if she rejects defense motions for the dismissal of murder charges.
At a motions hearing, defense attorney Marc Daffner told the judge there is no evidence that Shetler shot Reed with malice or that it was premeditated, and District Attorney John Peck countered with a recording of the 911 calls on the night of the November 2015 shooting, along with transcripts of Shetler’s preliminary hearing. The judge gave Peck thirty days to submit a written argument that charges of murder in the first degree and third degree should stand, after which she will rule on Daffner’s motions and presumably set a definitive date for the trial.
Peck is seeking the death penalty based on the fact that Shetler shot at and killed a police officer, which in the prosecution’s view are the aggravating circumstances which qualify the case for the death penalty. Daffner told the judge that Shetler did not know Reed was a police officer when he emerged from his girlfriend’s home and the two exchanged gunfire. Reed had been summoned to the home on a domestic violence complaint.
