Indiana County President Judge Thomas Bianco has granted a motion for a competency evaluation for Ronald Weiss, the 76-year-old man convicted of the murder of 16-year-old Barbara Bruzda of Tunnelton in 1978. Attorney Taylor Malcolm Johnson filed the motion last week along with a motion to stay court proceedings until the evaluation is complete.
Weiss’s conviction was overturned by a federal judge in 2018 due to prosecutorial misconduct by the State Attorney General’s office, but he was immediately re-charged. Jury selection is scheduled for November 18th.
Meanwhile, Judge Bianco is set to preside over the murder trial of Terrion Gates after some courtroom wrangling last week over witness lists and pretrial concerns. The 22-year-old Johnstown man is one of four defendants accused in the shooting death of 20-year-old Jaedyn Wright of Pittsburgh outside the Carriage House apartments in Indiana in October of 2017. The other defendants, Isaiah Moore, Isabella Edmonds, and Delmar Chatman, are all awaiting further court action.
A part of last week’s arguments in the Gates case was the potential use of Moore and Chatman as witnesses during the trial. Gates is charged with homicide, robbery, and conspiracy. He and the other defendants are accused of killing Wright during an attempted marijuana buy.
Comments