Blair DA rules out death penalty
By Kay Stephens, kstephens@altoonamirror.com
POSTED: July 18, 2009
HOLLIDAYSBURG - Test results yielded no evidence to justify seeking the death penalty in prosecuting a Hollidaysburg-area man accused of killing a Penn State Altoona student in March and hiding her body in the trunk of her car.
Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio said Friday that he has a strong first-degree murder case against Sean Louis Allen, 19, but no evidence of aggravating circumstances to pursue the death penalty.
"We got the test results back, and they just don't establish anything that meets the criteria," Consiglio said.
To seek the death penalty in Pennsylvania, prosecutors must prove an aggravating circumstance, such as a felony which occurred at the time of the murder.
Allen is accused of killing Margo "Maggie" Davis, 20, of Edison Avenue, Altoona. Police investigators believe she was killed in Allen's apartment on Lower Brush Mountain Road, where she allegedly had gone to buy a small amount of marijuana from Allen, a man she knew from high school.
After Davis was reported missing, her body was found in the trunk of her vehicle that Logan Township police impounded after it was identified at a townhouse complex.
Allen, who remains in Blair County Prison, entered a not guilty plea in May before Judge Hiram Carpenter.
Deputy District Attorney Wade Kagarise said evidence collected in the case remained under review at that time at the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Laboratory in Greensburg and asked for a delay in announcing his intentions regarding the death penalty.
Consiglio said he will pursue a first-degree murder conviction, which carries a mandatory life in prison penalty.
"That's the best I can do," Consiglio said. "Some people say life in prison is worse than the death penalty."
Neither of Allen's attorneys, Steve Passarello and Tom Hooper, were available for comment Friday afternoon.
They said in May that they were preparing Allen's defense as if it would be a death penalty case.
Consiglio said the case has pre-trial motions pending. He estimated that the case could be ready for trial as early as the end of the year.
Member Comments
View Comments: | 1-25 |26-29 | Post a comment
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Jen421
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07-20-09 8:18 PM
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I would love nothing more than for my hard-earned tax dollars to go towards housing pieces of POOP criminals! Yay! That's what I work hard for...
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Michelle101
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07-20-09 1:07 PM
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I know it's hard to understand sometimes..but everyone has the constitutional right to go to trial and be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. That doesn't make the attorneys who defend them bad people..they are doing their job. What if it was your father or brother or family member, and they really were innocent? wouldn't you want to make sure that their rights were protected and give them a chance to prove their innocence? If this man is guilty, the justice system will run it's course and he will spend the rest of his life in jail...if you ask some people, that's a fate worse than death.
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KMadak
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07-19-09 10:03 AM
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Anything to help take the pain away from being a lonely loser with no one who loves him. Right Mucous? Must stink being blown of out of someones nose every time you get comfortable. I've seen those Nasanex commercials.
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KMadak
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07-19-09 9:57 AM
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Haha, right Mucous. And I'm Abe Lincon.
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mocus1
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07-18-09 4:24 PM
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KMoron, pasanada, and JimmycrackcornandIdontcare, add up all 3 of your yearly salaries and multiply that by 10 and that's my yearly salary. I ride around in a luxury sled, wear fine suits and live in a mansion which makes your house look like a storage shed. I love living large while you toil away in your Rust Belt city with an unemployment rate much higher than your IQ. Even though your Communist buddies take almost half my paycheck, I still make enough to cackle loudly every time I drive past you bums protesting America on the sidewalk. Life is good!
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mocus1
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07-18-09 4:17 PM
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I see, so now you're criticizing my post frequency instead of debating the issue at hand. That's a sure sign of a loser who's lost the argument, lost control of their thinking process, and lost their mind.
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mocus1
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07-18-09 4:16 PM
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Liberals say, "better that 9 guilty men go free than 1 innocent man be wrongly convicted". So, according to them, a 90% error rate in the criminal justice system is fine. Liberals also say that a 5% error rate in the healthcare system is "outrageous and unacceptable". Liberals are quite comfortable having criminals victimize society over and over, as long as they can find a technicality to get the guilty off. Don't worry libs, I'm sure Pastajello or Stooper will find an uncrossed T or an undotted I to get this feminine hygiene product back out on the streets, where he can terrorize innocent people again. That's liberals motto, "we put criminals back on the streets, where they belong!"
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mocus1
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07-18-09 4:10 PM
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Where do you find the time to sit and post all day KMoron and pasanada? Have the anti-war protests died down that there's a socialist Demonrat in the White House and you don't have anything to do? No more time to blame Bush for an unemployment rate that's now twice what it was when he was President? No time to blame Republicans for crippling budget deficits under Democrat Fast Eddy and the Blue Notes in Harrisburg? Plenty of time for you to type personal attacks, but everybody else needs to knock it off eh?
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pasatiempo
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07-18-09 3:26 PM
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You know absolutely NOTHING about me, Mucus! I feel sorry for you that you have the kind of time on your hands required to post as much hate and dribel that you do. Maybe we should be concerned about your mental wellbeing and that you are likely to "snap" and harm someone. you obviously have no sense of decorum and your moral compass is stuck on cruelty and indifference! You are a sad sad person!
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KMadak
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07-18-09 2:52 PM
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Good to see you have so much free time to sit on here and post all day, Mocus. Must be due to the lack of anyone loving you, and/or losing your job at McDonald's.
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mocus1
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07-18-09 2:33 PM
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Oh by the way, I didn't "defend" McVeigh JimmycrackcornandIdontcare, I simply pointed out the zeal with which he was prosecuted and executed with dispatch by the justice system. And there were no bleeding heart libs outside the prison at McVeigh's execution begging for mercy were there? No, libs LOVE it when a so called "conservative" terrorist is executed. Then they pull a 180 and say that putting a needle in somebody's arm is "cruel and unusual punishment". If that's true, then taking blood out of a vein for testing is cruel and unusual. But trying to apply logic to liberal contentions is an exercise in futility. These are people who will say or do anything to defend the fringe, the kooky, the bizarre and the criminal.
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mocus1
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07-18-09 2:27 PM
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Strange Jimmypulldownyerflysnitfit, but liberal clowns like Bill Maher called the 9-11 terrorists "brave", and US Soldiers "rapists and murderers". And they killed 3000 innocent people, while McViegh killed 168 people (government workers that were called "Little Eichmann's by another left wing lunatic, Ward Churchill (a college professor no less). I realize it's embarassing for you to have to side with murderers, losers, lazy bums, welfare parasites, corrupt Democrat politicians and the like, but that's where you live. In the gutter, with the rest of you liberal buddies. (you like Arlen Spectre too, a DA who allowed murderer Ira Einhorn to escape to France after stuffing his girlfriend in a trunk). Wow, you liberals are so low you play handball off the curb.
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mocus1
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07-18-09 2:23 PM
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Jimmypulldownyerflysnafu, what should the penalty be if the convicted murderer kills a prison guard or another inmate while serving your prescribed life sentence? Should he be given another life sentence, or simply required to read all of your posts? Perhaps making him watch the entire series of Rachel Maddow or Countdown with Keith Uberlib shows would suffice. That would be much worse than the death penalty.
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JimmysuperflySnuka
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07-18-09 12:22 PM
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Keep going Mocus1. You just defended a terrorist that killed 168 Americans. Where did I ever defend terrorists? You are fighting strawmen, only one person on here has defended terrorists.
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85counts
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07-18-09 12:19 PM
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Hey, if you want a "Death Penalty" D.A. in Blair Copunty , you can have ours here in Bedford. He walks around with the "Lethal Injection" needle in his hip pocket. We"re hoping he sits down.
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mocus1
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07-18-09 11:55 AM
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Let's do the math. The alleged killer's in his 20's so 50 years in prison at $30,000/year is $1.5 million dollars (not counting inflation and increased union prison salaries jacked up by Dems, as well as endless appeals by left wing lawyers). Those will cost millions too. That $1.5 million could be used to educate kids, pave roads, give Ed Rendell a golden parachute, or bribe a Philadelphia Democrat union boss. But, libs would rather spend it giving nutritious meals and cable TV to a convicted murderer, all in the face of crushing budget deficits. Makes sense to them, but not to anyone that made it past the 2nd grade, has 46 chromosomes, or thinks money should be spent wisely. Liberals have phony sympathy for victims, but real sympathy for the perps.
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mocus1
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07-18-09 11:44 AM
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When it's the enemies of civilization vs. civilization, the liberal always takes the side of the enemies of civilization. Whether it's a murderer, welfare queen, late term abortion doctor, Muslim terrorist, Communist thug, murderous dictator, or just your run of the mill criminal, you're sure to find a hand wringing liberal defending the person's actions and trying to convince you that you're a lunatic for thinking the evildoer in question is guilty of wrongdoing. Yep, it's hard to figure out the moral code of the liberal, as they shun morality openly. Instead, they practice a particularly unsavory brand of self-serving strategies, all designed to make normal people look strange, and the fringe lunatic feel right at home.
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mocus1
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07-18-09 11:26 AM
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Yes KMoron, it's well documented that it costs way more to execute them, because of left wing lawyers who unnecessarily draw out the process by filing mindless appeals for 20 years, costing taxpayers millions of dollars, in an attempt to get a convicted murderer back in a nice cushy prison, where you lib morons can try to "rehabilitate him" and so he can write a book documenting how he was railroaded and mistreated by the justice system (might even get a movie deal from a Hollywood idiot). They love stories about prostitutes, murderers, and other sociopaths. Yes, you libs love to keep those murderers alive and well, don't you? Is there any sociopath and criminal you don't sympathize with? O yes, "right wing" criminals, they should fry right?
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mocus1
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07-18-09 11:19 AM
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yes Jimmypulldownyourfly, and the Twinkie defense was used by a far left screwball lawyer from San Francisco to get the murderer off! So you just contradicted yourself in your post as well. My posts obviously hit home runs, because if they were insane as you say, you wouldn't rebut them with such rabid left wing foaming at the mouth dumbaishery. You know you're getting at the truth when liberals start going batso. I support terrorism Jimmyopenmyfly? Hardly, it's you libs that defend terrorists as nice guys, only driven to violence by Bush. There's been few terrorists you didn't vigorously defend as simply a victim of America (except right wing terrorists of course). McVeigh opposed the government, like most left wing terrorists in the 60's, but you loved those anti-war terrorists, didn't you Jimmypulldownyerfly?
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mocus1
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07-18-09 11:19 AM
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yes Jimmypulldownyourfly, and the Twinkie defense was used by a far left screwball lawyer from San Francisco to get the murderer off! So you just contradicted yourself in your post as well. My posts obviously hit home runs, because if they were insane as you say, you wouldn't rebut them with such rabid left wing foaming at the mouth dumbaishery. You know you're getting at the truth when liberals start going batso. I support terrorism Jimmyopenmyfly? Hardly, it's you libs that defend terrorists as nice guys, only driven to violence by Bush. There's been few terrorists you didn't vigorously defend as simply a victim of America (except right wing terrorists of course). McVeigh opposed the government, like most left wing terrorists in the 60's, but you loved those anti-war terrorists, didn't you Jimmypulldownyerfly?
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mocus1
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07-18-09 11:12 AM
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PasaNada, so there's an interpretation of the Twinkie defense that you think is viable? Yes, we know what YOU think is right and wrong. Whatever you're in favor of is right and whatever you're against is wrong. Everything else is "gray area" and "nuance". We've been dealing with you liberal clowns long enough to know what weasels you are. Always bobbing and weaving. If mass murderers should get the death penalty, then why are you crybaby liberals always opposing the death penalty for people like Ted Bundy and every other serial killer? You seem to have a sick sense of sympathy for sexually insane torturers and killers. Hmmmmmm wonder why that is pasanada.....
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JimmysuperflySnuka
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07-18-09 10:43 AM
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Mocus1 reaches a new new low, objectively pro-terrorist as he sticks up for his boy Timothy Mcveigh. The guy killed 168 people and you think he was just "asking for a tax cut". I thought you'd be in favor of the "twinkie defense"? Don't you remember the guy that used it got away with killing the most prominent liberal gay activist probably in history (Harvey Milk). There goes your theory that people who do bad things to liberals get tougher treatment. Contradicted yourself in your own post.
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KMadak
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07-18-09 10:34 AM
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Well, it is well documented that it costs way more to have someone executed then to hold them in prison for a life sentence. After you factor in all the legal fees and the infinite appeals.
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cataztrophe
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07-18-09 10:20 AM
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The frustrating part for me is far too many times the police 'target' comeone and then disregard anything that could point eleswhere. That's actually scary. As for this case, what has to be additionally 'aggravating' than the murder and coverup? It's not like it was accidental.
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DRILLMAMMA
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07-18-09 8:20 AM
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Mocus1---I love sponge cake. But anyhow, I do agree there are bad apples in our local justice system. This has been going on for many years. I know of that from something that happened about 35 years ago with a friend of mine. Because of it something good came out of it. She is now an attorney and is still fighting the corruption in our local system.
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