Let the "Bull" Begin...

An accused ringleader of six Greensburg residents charged with torturing and slaying a mentally handicapped woman said he can't be sentenced to death because he has the intelligence of a third-grader.

Ricky V. Smyrnes, 24, on Wednesday filed pretrial motions in which he asked that the charges against him be dismissed for lack of evidence. He also wants Westmoreland County Judge Rita Hathaway to bar the prosecution from seeking the death penalty against him.

"The defendant has a long history as a victim of abuse, and a long history of mental health issues," Smyrnes contends in court documents filed by his lawyers, Terrance Faye and Scott Avolio.

They said an intelligence test Smyrnes took in 2008 determined he has an IQ of 67 and functions at the third-grade level.

Smyrnes, along with Melvin Knight, 20; Amber Meidinger, 20; Angela Marinucci, 18, Peggy Darlene Miller, 27, and Robert Loren Masters, 36, are charged with first-degree murder and other offenses for torturing and killing their roommate, 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty, on Feb. 11.

Police contend the group held Daugherty hostage for more than two days in the Greensburg apartment they shared, tortured her, stabbed her to death, put her body in a trash can and left it in a parking lot at Greensburg Salem Middle School.

The prosecution has named Smyrnes, Knight and Meidinger as the ringleaders and is seeking the death penalty against the trio.

Smyrnes wants the criminal charges against him dismissed in part because he said Knight's confession to police that he fatally stabbed Daugherty exonerates Smyrnes.

"By its own evidence, the commonwealth established that a person other than the defendant, that is Melvin Knight, stabbed and cut the victim, Jennifer Lee Daugherty, causing her death," Smyrnes' motion states.

Lawyers for each of the six defendants had until yesterday to file pretrial motions.

Meidinger's lawyers filed supplemental motions in which they asked to have statements made by jailhouse informants barred from evidence. Meidinger named four inmates at the county jail who allegedly gave statements to prosecutors. Those statements had information they obtained from Meidinger, according to the court filing.

Two of the inmates named as informants were Cynthia and Tabitha Pollard, a mother and daughter who were convicted of holding a mentally disabled woman hostage, enslaving and abusing her in their Greensburg home in 2006 and 2007. They are serving jail time for a similar offense against another woman while the family lived in Jeannette last year.

All six defendants are scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 29 for the first of three days of pretrial hearings before Hathaway.

I have a lot to say about this, however, at this time I'm going to keep it to myself. I'm sickened by all of this and this is just a tip of the iceberg. I can say this, I will fight for my sister and I will honor her.


You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
-Abraham Lincoln