Aug 21, 2017 3 min read

A second court-appointed attorney will assist in the defense of a local man charged with homicide and attempted homicide.

Uniontown attorney Jeremy J. Davis was appointed Monday by Washington County Judge John DiSalle to aid in the trial of Brandon Lee Wolowski, 22, of Washington, who is also charged with aggravated assault and robbery in connection with shootings at a home in the 900 block of Fayette Street Jan. 8, 2013.

Wolowski’s lead attorney is Noah Geary.

Assistant District Attorney Leslie Ridge, who will be the lead attorney in her first case that could result in capital punishment, said a status conference has been scheduled for October.

Matthew Mathias, 37, died of a gunshot wound to the chest that perforated his left lung. His girlfriend, Michelle Powell, 38, was shot in the cheek, chin, chest and arm but survived after undergoing surgery.

Before she was flown by helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital, Powell gave a statement to police that pointed to Wolowski as the perpetrator, and he was taken into custody shortly thereafter. Guns were the objective of the robbery, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing.

Wolowski conferred in DiSalle’s otherwise-empty courtroom with his attorneys after a pretrial conference. At the same time, a small crowd gathered in front of the courthouse on sunny South Main Street to witness a partial solar eclipse.

The prosecution is seeking the death penalty because of what are labeled “aggravating circumstances” surrounding Mathias’ killing, which took place during a felony robbery and “knowingly created a grave risk of death” to Powell.

The defense seeks to counter the prosecution’s case with mitigating circumstances that might keep Wolowski, if convicted, from receiving a death sentence. These include portraying Wolowski as a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome who had a long history of spending time in foster and group homes.

Wolowski first had a public defender as his legal representation. Geary, who has the qualifications required for a death-penalty case, now represents him at taxpayer expense.

Wolowski also granted permission to the juvenile probation office to release his records and asked the county office of Children and Youth Services to provide an opportunity to review his files in dependency cases.

In 2015, DiSalle also ordered Wolowski be transported to Torrance State Hospital in Westmoreland County for as long as 90 days for a mental-health evaluation, testing and treatment.

Hundreds of potential jurors received summonses to appear for a Wolowski trial earlier this month. Although their instructions were to check by phone for a recorded message before reporting to the courthouse, 14 either did not heed the instructions or failed to call and showed up expecting a trial.