The former Bradford man serving life in prison for his part in
the 1975 strangulation death of an elderly woman at the Holley
Hotel has lost an appeal in his case to the state Superior
Court.

Richard Wells, 54, who is imprisoned for second-degree murder in
the death of 75-year-old Dorothy Davidson, was convicted of holding
the elderly woman while Frank Castle of Buffalo, N.Y., strangled
her following a robbery which netted the two of them about $20.

Castle and two other people involved pleaded guilty. Wells was
the only one to stand trial.

According to court records in McKean County Court, Wells did not
file a direct appeal following his sentencing. He did, however,
file three Post Conviction Relief Act petitions, the last of which
was dismissed in 2003 by the Superior Court as being untimely.

The law states that such petitions should be filed within one
year of the judgment of sentence becoming final, which happened
April 26, 1976.

This latest issue came about in January 2006, when Wells sent a
petition to the McKean County Clerk of Courts asking for court
records and transcripts of testimony for a PCRA petition he had
pending before the court.

McKean County President Judge John Cleland denied Wells’s
request on Feb. 7, stating in his order that there was no such
petition pending before the court.

Wells filed an appeal of that order to the state Superior
Court.

In a ruling dated Sept. 12, the Superior Court affirmed
Cleland’s order, denying Wells’s request for court records and
transcripts.

Wells’s first post conviction petition was filed June 26, 1979,
and was granted by then-Potter County Judge Harold B. Fink. Wells
was asking to be released, alleging his right to a speedy trial had
been violated because he was not brought to trial within 180 days
of his arrest, as he was incarcerated during that time.

Fink agreed and ordered Wells to be set free. The district
attorney objected, appealed and won, keeping Wells
incarcerated.

In 1995, Wells filed a second post conviction petition, which
was dismissed as being untimely, as was the third petition, which
was filed in 2002 – 25 years after the date the sentence in the
case became final.