Andre Staton, a death row inmate from Blair County, has lost his latest appeal in which he claimed several newly discovered facts entitled him to another challenge to his conviction for the 2004 murder of his estranged girlfriend.

The 55-year-old defendant is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Greene County for the stabbing death of Beverly K. Yohn, 26, the mother of three young children.

Staton was convicted of bursting into the Altoona home of Yohn’s mother, Penney Lantz, where Yohn and her children were living, on Feb. 25, 2004, and killing her in front of one of the children.

Yohn had obtained a protection-from-abuse order against Staton six days earlier.

A jury found Staton guilty of first-degree murder and found two aggravating circumstances against him, including his violation of the PFA.

Blair County Judge Elizabeth A. Doyle sentenced Staton to death on June 1, 2006.

Staton’s case is complicated because five years ago, on May 13, 2013, he forfeited his right to be represented by an attorney when he slugged his court-appointed lawyer, Tim Burns of Ebensburg, at the conclusion of a hearing before Doyle.

During the hearing, Sta­ton argued to represent himself in his appeal, a proposal rejected by Doyle.

Burns suffered a severe concussion as a result of the blow to his head.

Doyle ruled that Staton had waived his right to further counsel because of the attack.

The Pennsylvania Su­preme Court, in an opinion issued Thursday and written by Justice Sallie Mundy, clarified that Staton, by the attack, had not waived, but forfeited his right to an attorney.

Doyle permitted Staton to represent himself in his post-trial appeal and ruled against his attempts to overturn his conviction and death penalty.

In the latest challenge, Staton claimed that Doyle made a mistake by permitting him to serve as his own counsel because, according to court rules, an inmate is not permitted to appeal his own case while represented by counsel.

The Supreme Court summed up Staton’s argument by stating, “In (his) view, his own filing violated the rule against hybrid representation, since at the time of filing, attorney Burns was still counsel of record.”

He also contended that Burns never filed an amended petition on his behalf as he was required to do.

Doyle erred, according to Staton, by not appointing “competent” counsel for him, and, as a result, improperly interfered with his ability to present his claims during his initial post conviction hearing.

Blair County District At­tor­ney Richard A. Consiglio argued that “It was Staton, not (Doyle) who interfered with his representation.”

The Blair DA in his brief to the Supreme Court pointed out instances in which Staton “attempted to thwart” his lawyer’s representation.

Staton was appealing Doyle’s decision last year to dismiss his attempts for another post-conviction review as untimely for not being filed within a year of the official closing of the case by the Supreme Court, which occurred in 2012.

Consiglio argued that Doyle’s handling of his appeal after the assault on his attorney was in fact “governmental interference” with his ability to properly present his appeal. Such interference would be an exception to the timeliness issue.

Mundy wrote, “After careful review, we conclude Staton’s governmental in­terference arguments lacks merit. The record demonstrates Staton did have competent counsel. … After attorney Burns’ appointment, Staton tried to proceed (on his own) and when (Doyle) refused to permit Staton to represent himself, he assaulted attorney Burns in open court.”

The ruling continued stating, “Attorney Burns never abandoned Staton. To the contrary, Staton wished to fire attorney Burns and represent himself, and when that request was not allowed, he forfeited attorney Burns’ further representation by assaulting him.”

Burns’ alleged misrepresentation was just one “newly discovered fact” that Staton based his appeal.

He also:

n Contended his trial counsel, retired Public Defender Donald Speice, had a conflict of interest, having represented a witness in the Staton case. The Mundy opinion rejected that argument, pointing out the cases involving the witness was well before the Yohn murder occurred.

n Staton, who now is represented by Pittsburgh attorney John Arthur Swab, contended his initial petition was a legal “nullity” because technically he couldn’t represent himself due to Burns’ appointment. Mundy stated that the moment Staton hit his attorney “he was no longer represented.”

“At that moment, any possible hybrid representation bar to his … petition ceased to exist,” she stated.

The Supreme Court upheld Doyle’s dismissal of Staton’s request for additional post-sentence review.

Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor and Justices Max Baer, Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht joined in the Mundy opinion. Justice Debra Todd concurred with the opinion.

Gov. Tom Wolf, who has the power to sign death warrants for inmates, will be notified of the Supreme Court ruling, although Wolf placed the state’s death penalty on moratorium in 2015 and has signed no death warrants.