Beaver Co. killer loses another bid to overturn case
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After decades of failed petitions to have his murder conviction and life sentence overturned, a Beaver County man tried a different approach.
Earlier this year, John Andrew Weber, 55, filed a petition to sue the state, the Washington County district attorney’s office, the prosecuting attorneys who worked on his case, the attorney general and the governor’s office, among others.
Weber, who was found guilty of killing his estranged wife, Christine Marie Weber, 25, cited “law issues” in his civil petition and requested a release from “unlawful detention” because of lack of evidence, according to court documents.
Weber cited an “illegal warrant complaint and indictment” and a complete “lack of any subject matter” in his request, court documents said.
Weber was found guilty of first-degree murder Oct. 3, 1990, following a 10-day jury trial.
He was sentenced to life in prison the following day.
His trial was held 14 months after the death of Christine Weber.
Her badly decomposed body was found in a remote section of the state gamelands in Hanover Township, five days after she was last seen at her job in Moon Township.
An autopsy revealed she had been stabbed 11 times in the torso.
A first-degree murder conviction carries a life sentence without parole when the death penalty is not sought.
Two weeks prior to his trial, Weber rejected a plea agreement to third-degree murder, which would have carried a 10-to-20-year sentence.
Last week, Washington County Common Pleas Judge Katherine Emery denied Weber’s request, stating the “petition does not make sense.”
“The petition is purporting to seek relief from petitioner’s criminal conviction (and) challenges the validity of the charge and the propriety of the jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas of Washington County,” court documents said.
Emery ruled that a petition for habeas corpus like the one filed by Weber is not the proper way to challenge the legality of a sentence.
Her decision notes that state courts have repeatedly rejected Weber’s appeals of his conviction and sentence, most recently in June of this year.
Emery also stated in her opinion that Weber “does not state a claim upon which relief may be granted by the Court of Common Pleas of Washington County.”