Indiana County President Judge William Martin made some scheduling moves for some high-profile criminal defendants this week, pushing back trials to later in the summer. They include the cases of Dwight Bowen, Simere Alford, Justin Libengood, and Charles Cook.
In Cook’s case, Judge Martin rescheduled his trial for seven felony counts of criminal use of a communication facility, committed during his time as an inmate at the county jail awaiting trial for murder, from June 22nd to September 21st. the judge also scheduled a motions hearing for July 30th for the murder trial. Cook is charged with criminal homicide and robbery for the 1991 shooting death of Myrtle McGill at her home along South 6th Street in Indiana. A Superior Court panel recently ruled that evidence previously ruled inadmissible in the case could be used.
The Bowen case involves an inmate at SCI Pine Grove ion January 1st last year. Bowen is accused of killing his cellmate, 32-year-old Luis Antonio Santiago. Bowen is serving life in prison for killing two toddlers in 2001 in a firebombing at a Philadelphia rowhouse. His new trial date is also September 21st.
Simere Alford’s trial has been rescheduled from June 22nd to September 8th. Alford is charged with the attempted murders of two state police troopers last summer as they were returning him to SCI Pine Grove after a hearing at the county courthouse. He’s facing 22 criminal charges.
Justin Libengood’s trial has been rescheduled from June 8th to August 24th. Libengood is charged with aggravated assault, prohibited possession of a firearm, attempted robbery, and criminal discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure. He’s accused of pulling a gun and trying to rob David Lee McGinnis of Bolivar inside a hotel room last summer in Burrell Township. The two fought and a shot was fired, with McGinnis suffering a wound to the back of his neck.
McGinnis is facing a drug charge in that case, and two drug cases in Westmoreland County.
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