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The Blair County District Attorney's Office announced Tuesday that it plans to seek the death penalty in the stabbing death of 42-year-old Christopher Helsel.
At formal arraignment Tuesday morning, District Attorney Pete Weeks and First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith presented Raymond Oechsle Jr., 51, and the court with notice that, if a jury returns a guilty verdict for first degree murder, the state will ask the jury to sentence Oechsle to death.
Oechsle is accused of killing Helsel in April 2023 at an apartment building on the 2000 block of Eighth Avenue in Altoona. Helsel's body was not discovered for several days.
An autopsy showed Helsel suffered more than 98 stab wounds to the head, face, chest, torso and back.
Public documents reveal that Oechsle had previously been convicted in federal court of assault with the intent to commit murder for stabbing another individual 22 times.
Read the full story in Wednesday's Mirror.