Pa. slaying defense to focus on ‘state of mind’
GREENSBURG (AP) – An attorney representing a Western Pennsylvania man accused of strangling his wife and dumping her body in a wooded area two years ago says the defense will focus on her client’s “state of mind.”
Forty-three-year-old David Stahl of Hempfield is charged in Westmoreland County with criminal homicide in the February 2012 death of 37-year-old Derry Area schoolteacher Rebecca Stahl.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that Assistant Public Defender Donna McClelland said Tuesday that the defense has hired a psychologist. The judge ordered the report of that expert witnesses turned over to prosecutors by May 1.
Late last year, another judge denied a defense request to bar prosecutors from using Stahl’s statements to police during the trial, which is scheduled to begin in mid-June.