Padilla

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County judge will hear from potential witnesses and go over disputed evidence during an evidentiary hearing as part of a petition for post-conviction relief filed by the counsel of Miguel Angel Padilla, the Mexican native who shot and killed three people outside an Altoona club in 2005.

In filing the petition, Padilla’s defense is seeking a new trial and dismissal of his death sentence.

While the hearing date has not been set, Senior Judge Timothy M. Sullivan heard arguments Friday afternoon in the Blair County Courthouse from defense attorney Marc Bookman and Blair County District Attorney Pete Weeks.

Bookman began the proceedings by addressing his motion filed in March that asked for the production of missing portions of the trial record and other discovery as a part of Padilla’s amended petition for post-conviction relief. Bookman said Padilla requested two videos of himself leaving the crime scene and the tape of his August 2005 statement to Detective Scott Koehle, which were shown to the jury during his trial in September 2006.

Weeks told Sullivan that while he had been in communication with the Altoona Police Department and the Prothonotary’s Office, the items requested by the defense had yet to be located.

Bookman’s arguments also focused on the ineffectiveness of Padilla’s counsel “based on the record” that premeditation couldn’t be proven and alleged that the jury’s standard of finding Padilla guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt” was lowered, with which Weeks immediately disagreed.

Weeks said “the record would prove that” and “would be sufficient,” while noting “premeditation can be formed in an instant.”

Bookman further pointed to the ineffectiveness of Padilla’s counsel, saying there was a “breakdown” in their relationship with Mexico and the Mexican consulate. He said there were armed sheriff’s deputies patrolling around the courthouse and the courtroom and that Padilla was attacked during his preliminary hearing.

Paired with a lack of venue change, Bookman said it was “insufficient” for a fair trial.

“A jury was brought in, but tension and publicity was so high,” Bookman said. “We don’t think it was sufficient, simple as that.”

Weeks, however, asked that section of the petition be dismissed and noted there were always armed sheriff’s deputies patrolling the courthouse.

“It’s their job,” Weeks said.

Bookman and Weeks made further arguments over the hourlong hearing regarding potential evidence and witnesses. Weeks made a point to reiterate to Sullivan that any witnesses called forward would need to be certified, which Sullivan noted for the record.

Before adjourning the hearing, Sullivan stated an evidentiary hearing would be scheduled for later this year.

The case against Padilla, now 46, stems back about 20 years to the early morning hours of Aug. 28, 2005, when he and two friends became upset at being refused entry to the Altoona UVA on Union Avenue.

Padilla, then a 25-year-old construction worker, went to a nearby car owned by one of his friends and retrieved a handgun bearing a laser focus.

He then proceeded to shoot and kill three people, including club owner and high school mathematics teacher Alfred Mignogna, club employee Frederick Rickabaugh and ex-Marine Stephen Heiss.

Padilla left the scene, but later called police to report that he thought he had injured someone. Police went to the home of his friend, where they took Padilla into custody.

The jury for the Padilla case was chosen from Cumberland County, but the trial was held in Blair County. When the jury ultimately recommended he receive the death penalty for each of the murders following his five-day trial in 2006, former Blair County Judge Hiram A. Carpenter followed the jury’s recommendation on Feb. 1, 2007.

Padilla remains incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution in Somerset County pending his petition’s outcome.

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