State Supreme Court refuses to hear appeals from two Pagans convicted in 2019 assault
The appeals process has been exhausted for two Pagans Motorcycle Club members, who were convicted and sentenced for severely beating a man in Charleroi five years ago, after the state Supreme Court refused to hear their cases.
In separate rulings refusing their appeals, the state’s high court effectively upheld the 20- to- 40-year sentences for Matthew James Vasquez and Joseph Theodore Olinsky III.
The state Supreme Court posted an order Tuesday denying an allowance of appeal for Vasquez, while it decided not to hear Olinsky’s appeal in January, according to online court documents.
Vasquez, 35, of Monessen, and Olinsky, 50, of McKeesport, were part of a group of men who beat Troy Harris, who was a former Pagan and current member of a rival motorcycle club, during a fight April 18, 2019, at the Charleroi Slovak Club on McKean Avenue.
The two men were among 10 people charged in connection with the attack on Harris. The beating of Harris, who suffered severe head injuries that apparently later caused a stroke and left him with cognitive problems, was captured on surveillance video.
Vasquez and Olinsky were convicted of aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy and simple assault, while they were acquitted of attempted homicide and conspiracy during their jury trial in Washington County Court of Common Pleas in February 2020. Later that year, Judge John DiSalle sentenced both Vasquez and Olinsky to serve 20 to 40 years in prison, and both are currently lodged in separate state prisons in Western Pennsylvania.
The state Superior Court upheld the lengthy prison sentences for the two men last April. Both appealed that decision to the state Supreme Court in July.