New sentencing denied in 1973 murder of children
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GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A western Pennsylvania judge has denied a new sentencing hearing for a man serving a life term following his conviction as a teenager in the murders of two young children four decades ago.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that Westmoreland County Judge Debra Pezze rejected 58-year-old John Veltre Jr.’s bid for resentencing Friday.
Veltre was 16 when he was convicted in the 1973 deaths of 2-year-old Sandra Dee Morgan and her 3-month-old sister, Tina. Prosecutors said he threw both children into a wall and stomped on the older child after raping their mother in her Monessen home.
Veltre cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring mandatory life sentences for juveniles, but Pezze said appeals courts had ruled that the high court decision cannot be applied retroactively.