Hearing scheduled in Clemons appeal
A Washington County judge will decide whether blacks were excluded from the jury pool before the 2015 death-penalty trial of Jordan Clemons in the killing of his ex-girlfriend.
That Clemons, 27, “was entitled to a jury of his peers and the jury was comprised of all Caucasian individuals and (Clemons) is African-American” was one of the assertions lodged by Deputy Public Defender Charles Carpinelli in a motion asking Judge Gary Gilman to vacate Clemons’ sentence and acquit him on the charges.
Gilman issued an order last week scheduling a hearing on that question for Dec. 16.
Authorities said Clemons slit 21-year-old Karissa Kunco’s throat and dumped her naked body in a wooded area in Mt. Pleasant Township in January 2012.
Clemons, formerly of Canonsburg and living in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington neighborhood at the time, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in May 2015. He is now imprisoned at the State Correctional Institution-Greene.
Along with pushing for an acquittal, Carpinelli alternatively asks Gilman to vacate Clemons’ sentence and order a new trial.
In arguing for the acquittal, Carpinelli also wrote the prosecution didn’t provide sufficient evidence to show Clemons had fully formed intent to kill and “had willfully, deliberately and premeditatedly killed, with malice” – necessary for the first-degree murder conviction. In a subsequent filing, Carpinelli wrote that there was “enough evidence to reasonably support that the defendant was under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol and had done so in a state of diminished capacity,” including from state troopers who said he smelled of alcohol when he turned himself in.
Carpinelli argued the judge should have instructed jurors about the diminished capacity defense, which could have resulted in a lesser conviction for third-degree murder.
Deputy District Attorney Jerry Moschetta countered in court papers that there was sufficient evidence for a conviction on the charge.
“Aside from the nature and severity of the four separate wounds to Ms. Kunco’s neck, there was additional evidence presented from which the jury based its verdict that the defendant killed Ms. Kunco willfully, deliberately and with premediation.”
Among other details, Moschetta noted a protection-from-abuse order the Baldwin woman sought against Clemons 23 days before the homicide after he physically attacked her. Despite the order, Facebook messages showed Clemons “coercing Ms. Kunco into meeting him by threatening suicide.”
He also disputed Carpinelli’s claim that there was sufficient evidence for a diminished capacity defense, noting state troopers who spoke to Clemons 12 hours after the discovery of Kunco’s body said he smelled like alcohol but appeared in control of his faculties.
Among the arguments Carpinelli offered in requesting a new trial was that the court should have allowed Clemons to be tried in a different county because of local publicity for the case. He also asked the court to reconsider Clemons’ sentence, arguing the jury shouldn’t have imposed the death penalty.