Oct 20, 2016 3 min read

A convicted murderer serving life in state prison is asking a Washington County judge to dismiss the decades-old homicide case stemming from the killing of 15-year-old Tina Spalla rather than retry him.

Attorney Dennis Popojas, who represents William “Tippy” Wallace, said in a motion filed Tuesday that prosecutors “failed to exercise any due diligence” when a new trial was ordered for Wallace, “causing the matter to languish” beyond the 365 days allowed under state law.

Citing Rule 600 of state criminal procedure – which gives prosecutors that length of time to bring a case to trial, barring any actions by the defendant – Popojas argued the law required a new trial be held for his client seven years ago.

Popojas made known his plans to invoke the rule at a status conference for which Wallace was brought to Washington County earlier this month.

Deputy District Attorney Jerry Moschetta said during the proceeding he would “present evidence as to what efforts my office took to bring Mr. Wallace to trial” in response to the motion.

Wallace, 62, is already serving a life sentence on a second-degree murder conviction for killing Carl Luisi, 63, during the same 1979 robbery at Carl’s Cleaner’s in Canonsburg. Spalla was working there as a clerk.

If a new trial is held, it will be the fourth for Wallace, 62, formerly of Wheeling, W.Va., who is imprisoned at State Correctional Institution-Greene. Wallace’s first trial, in 1980, before a Washington County jury ended in a mistrial. An Erie County jury convicted him in 1981, but the state Supreme Court ordered a new trial in 1985.

On the eve of the third trial, Wallace’s accomplice, Henry Eugene Brown, turned on Wallace in exchange for a sentence renegotiated with then-district attorney John Pettit. A jury brought in from Somerset County sentenced Wallace in 1985 to death for the first-degree murder of Spalla and life in prison for the second-degree murder of Luisi.

The federal court in Pittsburgh ordered a new trial in Spalla’s death in 2003 – a decision both sides appealed.

Popojas said in the motion the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals court issued an opinion affirming the ruling in 2008, giving the prosecution six months to hold a new trial or else the first-degree murder conviction would be vacated.

That trial was never held, and Popojas argued under Rule 600 the prosecution had until Aug. 26, 2009 – 365 days from when the conviction was vacated, by his calculation – to retry Wallace.

Instead, nothing happened until the district attorney’s office filed a motion to assign the case to a judge and hold a status conference, according to Popojas’ motion. At that point, then-president judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca assigned it to herself and on was held in May 2011.

Popojas wrote the next sign of activity he could find was a “third motion for assignment of judge and request for status conference” by the prosecution that resulted in no court order.

Nothing further happened in the case until Jan. 7, 2015, when the case was assigned to Judge John F. DiSalle after O’Dell Seneca left the bench.