Aug 30, 2016 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – The state Superior Court affirmed the judgment of sentence Tuesday of Jason W. Roe, who, with his wife, Lana Kay Roe, was convicted of murder for the August 2012 fatal shooting of a Daisytown man at a remote Wayne Township cabin.

Jason Roe, 36, also of Daisytown and formerly of Greene County, was convicted Nov. 13, 2013, by a Greene County jury of first-degree murder in the death of 38-year-old Cordele Patterson.

During the same trial, the jury was unable to reach a verdict on charges against Lana Roe, 44, and her case ended in a mistrial. At a subsequent trial in March 2014, Lana Roe was also convicted of first-degree murder. Both were sentenced to life in prison.

According to a case summary included with the court opinion, the Roes believed Patterson, their neighbor in Daisytown, items from their house, including guns, sometime in early August 2012. Patterson allegedly admitted to Lana Roe he took the items and he agreed to return them.

On Aug. 14, 2012, Jason Roe took Patterson to a cabin on Strawn Hill Road near Spraggs, apparently to hide him from police. Lana Roe filed a report with police implicating Patterson in the burglary.

Jason Roe came home and picked up his wife. They retrieved their property from Patterson’s house then returned to the cabin, stopping once to buy a 12-gauge shotgun and again to allow Jason Roe to test fire it.

When the couple reached the cabin, Jason Roe told his wife to go inside and get Patterson. As she and Patterson walked out of the cabin, Jason Roe fired the shotgun in their direction. Lana Roe was hit in the face by pellets from the blast.

Patterson ran back into the cabin and Jason Roe followed him inside, where he shot him at close range in the arm and neck. After being hit by the shotgun blast, Lana Roe fled and drove to a neighbor’s house where the neighbor called police.

At his trial, Jason Roe testified he shot Patterson in self-defense, believing Patterson had a gun.

In his appeal to Superior Court, Jason Roe, acting on his own behalf, claimed the prosecution failed to disprove his self-defense claim.

The appellate court, however, disagreed and noted a police corporal testified at trial that Jason Roe initially told him he did not see any weapons in Patterson’s hands before the shooting.

This assertion was corroborated by Lana Roe’s testimony that Patterson did not have a weapon or any other item in his hands when he left the cabin, the court said. In addition, police found no weapons on Patterson or in the cabin.

“The evidence presented by the Commonwealth at trial established that appellant used deadly force on victim despite the fact that victim did not actually possess a handgun or initiate the altercation. Thus, the circumstances failed to justify appellant’s use of deadly force,” the court said.

The court also noted the prosecution provided substantial evidence at trial that Jason Roe planned the shooting, including his purchase of the shotgun and his stopping to test-fire the weapon before his arrival at the cabin.

Jason Roe also argued the trial court abused its discretion in allowing autopsy photographs to be admitted at trial that were highly prejudicial, inflammatory and irrelevant.

The appellate court ruled, however, some of the photos introduced and that Jason Roe cited in his appeal, had not been challenged at the time of trial, which waived all claims of admissibility. Others, the court said, were determined to be relevant because they indicated Patterson was shot at close range and with an intent to kill.

Jason Roe also claimed the trail court failed to provide him with all materials necessary for his appeal, including all pre-trial pleadings, transcripts and trial exhibits. The appellate court said, however, Roe failed to identify specific documents that were missing or explain how this would interfere with his right to meaningful appellate review.

An appeal filed by Lana Roe of her conviction is still pending.