Nov 29, 2018 2 min read

A murder conviction was upheld for a West Virginia man who rammed a Monongalia County sheriff’s deputy’s cruiser during a chase near the Mt. Morris exit on Interstate 79 in Greene County nearly seven years ago.

Jerod Alan Green of Morgantown appealed his 2012 conviction of third-degree murder claiming ineffective counsel and that autopsy photographs of Sgt. Michael Todd May were inflammatory and prejudiced the Greene County jury.

The Pennsylvania Superior Court Thursday denied the appeal Green filed through a Post-Conviction Relief Act petition asking for a new trial.

The state Superior Court in 2014 affirmed the 25-to-50-year prison sentence for Green, 42, that also included convictions on charges of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, fleeing a police officer while DUI and crossing a state line. The state Supreme Court in 2015 declined to hear Green’s appeal asking for his sentence to be overturned.

Green led Monongalia County sheriff’s deputies on a lengthy chase that began in Morgantown and eventually crossed into Pennsylvania. Green entered I-79 on the Mt. Morris exit traveling south back to West Virginia in his pickup truck at 98 miles per hour as he rammed May’s police vehicle that was parked on the median. May, 41, died of brain injuries suffered in the Feb. 18, 2012, crash.

The jury agreed with prosecutors that Green purposely steered his pickup truck from one side of the interstate directly into May’s police SUV. Green, who had been involved in a hit-and-run crash earlier in Morgantown, was found to have a blood-alcohol content level of 0.189 percent.

In its order, the state Superior Court said autopsy photographs of May illustrated the severity of his head injuries suffered in the crash and were not sensationalized. The court also ruled Green’s lawyer was not ineffective for failing to present character evidence on his behalf or to have the autopsy photographs barred as trial evidence.