The opening salvo of Paul Morrisroe’s appeal to the state Superior Court has been filed, and among the 38 allegations of trial court error was Judge John Pavlock’s failure to grant a mistrial on Jan. 24.
Attorney James P. Miller of Smethport filed a “concise statement of matters complained of on appeal” last week in McKean County Court. Morrisroe, 41, formerly of Marshburg, was convicted on Jan. 26 of charges including homicide by motor vehicle while driving under the influence of alcohol for the June 2, 2015, fatal hit-and-run crash that claimed the life of Dakota Heinaman.
The trial was held in Venango County, with a change of venue granted after jury selection was attempted unsuccessfully in McKean County.
In Miller’s statement, he alleges perceived errors throughout the course of the case, beginning with a hearing Feb. 11, 2016, and continuing through sentencing in February 2017. Those alleged errors, for the most part, are denials of motions by the defense at various hearings throughout the case.
The denial of a mistrial, alleged as number 24 on the list of matters complained of on appeal, came about during the prosecution’s presentation of the case against Morrisroe.
During the proceedings, McKean County District Attorney Stephanie Vettenburg Shaffer was questioning a state police accident reconstruction specialist, Cpl. Kurtis Rummel. She was using her laptop computer and a projector to project photos onto a screen on the back wall of the courtroom. When she opened a folder, thumbnail images of all the photos in the folder were displayed — including ones not admitted into evidence.
Trial defense attorney Robert Kinnear objected and called for a sidebar discussion with Pavlock. Shortly thereafter, Pavlock dismissed the jury for lunch.
After the jury left, Kinnear addressed the court, explaining some of the thumbnails were visible and contained images of blood spatters and of part of the body of the victim.
“My client is now prejudiced by this,” Kinnear said, making a motion for a mistrial.
Pavlock went to the jury box, with the images still on the projector screen, to sit in different seats to see if he could determine what the jurors might have seen.
“From here and from the jury box, it’s certainly defined,” Pavlock said when returning to the bench. He added, “These should not have been viewed by the jury.”
He ordered the display on the screen to be placed on the record — not into evidence — so should the case be appealed, the appellate court could see what the images in question were.
Following the lunch break, Pavlock questioned the jury to see if anyone had viewed the other photos. No one on the jury indicated that they had. Pavlock denied the mistrial motion and the trial continued.
In the statement regarding the appeal, Miller also alleged the evidence presented in the case was insufficient to prove that Morrisroe was the driver of the truck at the time of the crash.
He also alleged that Pavlock abused his discretion by imposing consecutive sentences in the case, saying the charges should have merged to create a shorter sentence.
The other alleged errors include the judge denying motions for the following: suppression of evidence, recusal of himself from the case, dismissal of the most serious charges in the case and exclusion of evidence regarding Morrisroe’s refusal of blood testing.
Miller also argued the judge erred by allowing the testimony of Heinaman’s mother, Dawn James, at trial. She was one of the first few people on the scene following the crash.
As of Monday, nothing further had been filed in the case. The appeals process typically takes a year or longer.
Miller, who had represented Morrisroe through the majority of the case and the last part of the trial, is representing Morrisroe without charge for the appeal.
Morrisroe is serving a sentence of 7½ to 15 years in state prison. According to online records, he is currently housed at the state prison at Camp Hill.
