After murder conspiracy conviction overturned in Stepko case, judge reviewing sentence of her neighbor
Evelyn Stepko, 92, kept hundreds of thousands of dollars in her California Borough home, and a neighboring family coveted the cash Stepko died defending.
State Superior Court, however, reversed a conviction of conspiracy to commit homicide against one of the neighbors, Diane McClelland, 56, and decreed she’ll receive a new sentence on other charges stemming from a series of burglaries that ended in Stepko’s death more than eight years ago.
A three-judge panel hearing the appeal of Diane McClelland, 58, found “evidence was not sufficient to prove (McClelland’s) participation in a conspiracy to kill” Evelyn Stepko, a widow who lived near McClelland’s family in the Mon Valley borough’s Granville neighborhood.
“There was no evidence proffered to establish (McClelland’s) specific intent to kill the victim,” read the opinion, according to the appellate court decision written by Judge John Bender. “The only theory upon which the jury could have concluded that (McClelland) was guilty of a conspiracy to commit homicide is not legally cognizable.”
Pittsburgh attorney Stephen C. Paul, who was appointed by the court to represent McClelland during her appeal, said Friday after conferring with Judge John DiSalle and First Assistant District Attorney Dennis Paluso the judge is going to request records from the state regarding the defendant’s incarceration to update a report prepared prior to her initial sentencing in June 2013.
McClelland was originally scheduled for resentencing Nov. 18, but that is likely to change. A new date has not been set.
A jury found Diane McClelland guilty on all counts, and DiSalle sentenced McClelland to 24 1/2 to 49 years following her trial.
The bulk of the sentence – 20 to 40 years – comes from the homicide-conspiracy conviction.
She is currently imprisoned at SCI-Cambridge Springs, a minimum-security facility in Crawford County.
Superior Court ordered she be sentenced anew for dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activity, receiving stolen property, providing false information to law enforcement and conspiracy offenses.
The appellate panel rejected McClelland’s bid to have those convictions reversed, finding the government had “clearly established a conspiracy to burgle the victim’s home, and to receive and spend the illicit gains derived therefrom.”
A summary of Diane McClelland’s trial quoted in the appellate court’s opinion said while no evidence showed McClelland “physically participated” in the home invasions, prosecutors made the case that she conspired with her husband and her stepson to carry them out.
Diane McClelland could have received a maximum of 37 to 74 years in prison. She turned down a plea bargain of 10 to 20 years, then-First Assistant District Attorney Michael Lucas said at the time. Lucas is now a Washington County judge.
Diane McClelland worked as a grocery store clerk and her husband’s sole legitimate income came from an alleged disability.
Evidence from the trial showed McClelland had purchased real estate, paid for home renovations and bought a late-model Lincoln Navigator with cash from a number of burglaries that occurred at Stepko’s house between August 2009 and July 18, 2011, when she was found stabbed to death there.
Her husband, David A. McClelland, pleaded guilty in 2012 to murdering Stepko, and later died of natural causes at age 59 in SCI-Greene.
His son, David J. McClelland, was found guilty in Stepko’s murder following a trial in 2013. The former Monongahela and Washington Township, Fayette County, part-time police officer, who is now 34, is serving a life sentence at that same prison. He is challenging his conviction in Superior Court under the Post-Conviction Relief Act.
Authorities believed the elder David McClelland had gone into Stepko’s house thinking she wasn’t home, but she surprised him while he was trying to carry out another burglary.
Stepko, who had amassed more than $1 million, was so frugal her house wasn’t even connected to the public water system.