A hearing in November and a trial date in January have been set in the fatal hit-and-run case against Paul Morrisroe.
Morrisroe, 40, of Marshburg, is facing charges including homicide by motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and marijuana for the June 2, 2015, hit-and-run crash on Route 646 in Cyclone which caused the death of Dakota Heinaman, 20.
Since Morrisroe was charged — on Aug. 11, 2015 — the case has changed hands in the prosecutor’s office, with current District Attorney Stephanie Vettenburg Shaffer defeating former prosecutor Ray Learn for the elected office of district attorney.
It has also changed hands with defense attorneys. Since early on in the case, Morrisroe had been represented by Smethport attorney James P. Miller, with assistance from Bradford attorney Daniel Lang. However, on Sept. 2 — after a little more than a year at the helm of the defense, Miller abruptly retired from law, citing personal health reasons.
On Sept. 14, Warren attorney Rob Kinnear filed an entry of appearance on Morrisroe’s behalf.
And the location of the jury selection and trial has changed as well, after an attempt to seat a jury in McKean County proved unsuccessful. Both jury selection and trial will be held in Venango County Court in Franklin.
On Sept. 23, President Judge John Pavlock held a pretrial conference in chambers, with Kinnear and Shaffer. Pavlock issued an order subsequent to the hearing, saying that Kinnear indicated he would be filing a Habeas Corpus Petition in the case before Nov. 1.
The petition had yet to be filed as of Monday in McKean County Court. According to the Cornell University Law School, such a petition is usually filed to “review the legality of the party’s arrest.”
Pavlock indicated in his order that should a petition be filed, the prosecution has until Nov. 15 to file an answer, and a hearing would be held at 9 a.m. Nov. 18 in McKean County Court to consider the matter. Senior Judge William Morgan has been assigned to hear the matter, since he previously heard and ruled on prior pre-trial motions in the case.
Pavlock also rescheduled the trial to begin on Jan. 17 in Venango County. Ten days have been allotted for the trial.
Hours of testimony have been given so far in the case, during several hearings challenging the search warrants in the case, the evidence against Morrisroe, the specificity of the charges against him and whether all the evidence obtained by the District Attorney’s office had been turned over to the defense as required in discovery.
Three issues from those hearings, dealing with defense experts to be called at trial, are currently under appeal to the state Superior Court, yet the case was slated to continue to trial without waiting for decisions to be made.
The trial had been attempted in McKean County back in May. After three days of questioning — and excusing — potential jurors, Pavlock called a halt to the proceedings. Only five jurors were seated, many of the rest excused for knowing the participants in the case, being familiar with media reports or rumors about the case, or for other reasons.
At that point, Pavlock granted a change of venue and venire in the matter — the place where the trial will be held, and the location from where the jurors will be summoned.
Those three days of jury selection in Smethport were rife with controversy — with potential jurors discussing the case and their opinions on it, including at least one person saying Morrisroe should “hang for what he did;” with an outburst from a passing motorist to jurors who were outside at lunch time, again calling for Morrisroe to “hang;” and with many potential jurors telling the judge they were already convinced of Morrisroe’s guilt based on news stories, rumors and a campaign for “Justice for Dakota,” the victim in the case.
Several times throughout the days of questioning, Miller called for a change of venue or venire. Each time, Pavlock denied the motion, saying he wanted to at least make an attempt to hold the trial locally before making a decision to hold it elsewhere.
