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A former York resident who was convicted of a Huntingdon County murder that occurred nearly
24 years ago has failed to convince a state appeals court that he is innocent and that he is entitled to a new trial.
Allen Branthafer, 46, is presently incarcerated in the State Correctional Institution Greene County, where is serving a life sentence on charges of second-degree murder, criminal conspiracy, burglary, robbery and unlawful theft for the April 17,
2000, shooting death of an Altoona native, Roy Eugene Ryen, who at the time was staying at his son's cabin in Shirley Township, Huntingdon County.
In an opinion issued Friday, the Pennsylvania Superior Court explained that Branthafer was alleged to have joined two Mount Union residents, Chris Muckle and Tommy Duvall, in burglarizing a home near the cabin, where they took guns and a crossbow.
After the burglary, the trio came upon the cabin where Ryen was staying and were attempting to steal his truck when confronted by the victim.
According to the lengthy Superior Court opinion issued last Friday, Branthafer shot the victim.
He and his accomplices then hid the body under a canoe and the assailants allegedly took the truck.
The two Mount Union men were apprehended and police eventually apprehended Branthafer in York.
He has repeatedly maintained his innocence, contending he was in York the evening of the murder.
Branthafer, after being sentenced to life, appealed his case to the Pennsylvania Superior Court and sought review by the Supreme Court after his initial appeal was rejected.
The Supreme Court refused review, at which point he initiated a post-conviction appeal that was also rejected by the state courts.
On Feb. 1, 2014, Branthafer sought relief from the federal court, asserting claims of ineffective assistance of the lawyers who represented him throughout his trial and appeal process.
The District Court from Pennsylvania's Middle District in September 2015 dismissed his appeal.
It wasn't until July 26, 2018, that he filed his most recent post-conviction petition in Huntingdon County, and it was rejected by Senior Judge Stewart L. Kurtz, who found it to be untimely.
A defendant has a year from the date on which his conviction became final to file a post-conviction appeal.
By the time Branthafer's second post-conviction appeal was filed, it had been several years since his case had been finally closed.
Realizing this, Branthafer, represented by attorneys James A. Salemme of Pittsburgh and Kenneth W. Mishoe of Camp Hill, argued that the one-year time bar for appeals to be filled was unconstitutional, and he attempted to show that new evidence had been discovered that demonstrated he was not present in Huntingdon County on the evening of the murder.
A Superior Court panel that included Judges Judith F. Olson, Carolyn H. Nichols and Jill Beck explained that for Branthafer to overcome the time bar, he had to show that legally recognized exceptions to the rule were present.
One of those alleged exceptions was that the one-year rule was unconstitutional.
The panel cited a precedential case which found the (post-conviction) time bar was "constitutionally sound."
The court recited from the precedential case that the time bar "strikes a reasonable balance between society's need for finality in criminal cases and the convicted person's need to demonstrate that there has been an error in the proceedings that resulted in his conviction."
Continuing to quote from the precedential case, the panel noted that a one-year period is "sufficiently generous to prepare even the most difficult case."
"The purpose of law is not to provide convicted criminals with the means to escape well-deserved sanctions, but to provide a reasonable opportunity for those who have been wrongly convicted to demonstrate the injustice of their conviction," the panel stated.
Another exception to the time-bar rule is newly discovered or after-discovered evidence.
Branthafer's defense reported that during his hearing in Huntingdon County, a new witness came forward to indicate that on the evening of the thefts and murder, he saw the accomplices at a convenience store and at an apartment -- and Branthafer was not with them.
That testimony,
Branthafer contended, was a new "fact" that hurdled the time bar.
The Superior Court panel stressed that this argument was not new and that it "has been a fact steadfastly maintained by (Branthafer) throughout his legal journey and a fact that has always been known by (Branthafer)."
The panel stated that Branthafer's absence from the convenience store and at the apartment doesn't prove his defense "other than to shed light on the likelihood (he) may, or may not, have joined the individuals from those locations to commit the crime proven at trial."
It ruled the alleged newly obtained information does not constitute an exception to the time-bar rule.
The Superior Court panel upheld the dismissal of Branthafer's latest appeal by Kurtz, stating his petition was "patently untimely and did not validly invoke one of the enumerated exceptions to the (post-conviction) one-year time bar."
Branthafer can still seek review of the decision by the Supreme Court.
State Court records show that Muckle entered a no-contest plea to murder in the third degree on
April 17, 2001. His sentence was completed upon his release from the State Correctional Institution in Fayette County on May 8, 2023, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
Duvall entered a plea to third degree murder on
Feb. 26, 2001. He was released to state parole from SCI Mahanoy on April 29, 2010, the DOC reported.