The former Coudersport school teacher serving life in prison is seeking an appeal in his case, but not one that people might expect.
Gregory Eldred, who turns 57 on Wednesday, isn’t appealing his life sentence for the first-degree murder of his former wife, Darlene Sitler, an organist whom he gunned down during a service at the First United Presbyterian Church in Coudersport in 2012.
This appeal, to the state Superior Court, is about restitution.
Eldred, through court-appointed attorney Daniel Lang of Bradford, is arguing that he shouldn’t have to pay $1,427.20 in counseling fees for a witness to the murder. He is claiming the witness’s claim for restitution came too late — two years after Eldred was sentenced; and that prosecutors failed to establish a “causal connection between the alleged witness’ witnessing of the crime … and her receipt of counseling services,” the appeal read.
In the appeal, Eldred is also challenging whether a witness should be considered a victim in the sense that he should have to pay restitution for her counseling.
The term victim, in the legal sense, means a direct victim, parent or guardian of the direct victim, a minor child who is a witness, or a family member of a homicide victim, the appeal read. While the court noted the woman was present in the church at the time of the homicide, she does not meet the legal definition of a victim, Eldred’s attorney argued.
She was not the “direct victim,” which is the “individual against whom a crime has been committed or attempted,” the appeal read.
“In this case, (Eldred) was successful in committing the crime of murder in the first degree, so no crime was attempted. The individual against whom the crime of murder was committed is — by definition — deceased.” The woman, “being a living and breathing person, is therefore not one against whom the crime of murder has been committed,” the appeal read.
Because the woman does not fall under the category of a direct victim, Potter County Judge Stephen Minor erred by ordering Eldred to pay restitution for her counseling, Lang argued.
On Dec. 2, 2012, during the Sunday morning worship service at First United Presbyterian Church, Eldred entered the church sanctuary, walked down the aisle between the pews, located his ex-wife at organ and fired two shots at her. He left the church, placed the gun on the hood of a vehicle and paced for a few minutes before he re-entered the church, according to the criminal complaint when Eldred was arrested.
Parishioners were begging him to put down the weapon, but Eldred refused and said he would shoot them, too. Several parishioners struggled with him to try to get the weapon from him, but he managed to shoot two more times before they were able to get the gun away from him, according to court records.
Sitler was a well-loved and highly respected music teacher at the Northern Potter Children’s School, according to those who gave statements at Eldred’s sentencing.
Eldred had been a music teacher in Coudersport Area School District.
In July 2014, Eldred had filed a Post Conviction Relief Act petition, seeking to withdraw his guilty plea in the case, saying his prior attorney, William Hebe, had been ineffective. The petition was withdrawn in July 2015.
The current appeal will be submitted to a panel of Superior Court judges for consideration.
