HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County attorney is seeking to have the District Attorney’s Office barred from seeking the death penalty in the 2023 stabbing death of 42-year-old Christopher Helsel.

Filed in Blair County Court on Feb. 13, defense attorney Thomas Dickey wrote in his motion requesting to bar the death penalty that “discussions with the DA against seeking the death penalty have proven fruitless.”

Dickey is representing Raymond Thomas Oechsle Jr., 54, who 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 and a subsequent autopsy showed he suffered more than 98 stab wounds to the head, face, chest, torso and back.

Oechsle was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, single felony counts of third degree-murder, robbery, criminal trespass, as well as two felony counts each of burglary and aggravated assault. He also faces single misdemeanor counts of abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, theft and possession of an instrument of crime with intent.

During a formal arraignment on Aug. 1, 2023, District Attorney Pete Weeks and First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith notified the court that the state would ask the jury to sentence Oechsle to death if they returned a guilty verdict for first-degree murder.

In requesting the death penalty, the DA’s Office submitted three aggravated circumstances to warrant the sentence over life in prison. They wrote that Oechsle committed the killing “while in perpetration of a felony,” that the “offense was committed by means of torture” and that Oechsle has a “significant history of felony convictions.”

Dickey asked the court to strike the three circumstances, writing in his motion that the DA’s Office lacked “sufficient support” in their arguments.

He wrote that “there was no ongoing felony” when Helsel’s killing occurred and that the DA’s Office “produced zero evidence that (Oechsle) intended to inflict pain beyond” what came with the alleged killing.

Regarding Oechsle’s criminal past, Dickey wrote that Oechsle didn’t have the “requisite significant history of felony convictions” as the state Supreme Court “has held that a single felony conviction for a crime of violence will not suffice to establish the aggravating circumstance.”

Public documents state that Oechsle was previously convicted in federal court of assault with the intent to commit murder for stabbing another individual 22 times.

Prior to Oechsle’s alleged involvement in Helsel’s death, he pleaded guilty in Blair, Bedford and Bedford counties to misdemeanor charges of drug possession, disorderly conduct and defiant trespass, with the earliest case appearing in 2016. The heaviest sentence Oechsle received was a 60 days to 12 months in prison, followed by one year of probation, online court documents show.

Dickey also filed motions asking for Oechsle to be granted access to writing materials so he could communicate with his defense attorneys; have access to the resources of a law library or other legal resources to better aid in his own defense; and be given a way to access the discovery in his case electronically as it “is the easiest, most efficient means” of allowing Oechsle access to the materials.

Oechsle has four other pending cases in Blair County court. He has been incarcerated in Blair County Prison with bail denied since April 27, 2023.

Oechsle’s next court appearance is scheduled for May 22 in front of President Judge Wade A. Kagarise.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor-Musselman is at 814-946-7458.