Mother of Harrisburg homicide victim wants new trial for daughter’s killer
The Patriot News
August 6, 2010
By Matthew Kemeny
Of The Patriot News
The mother of a woman killed nearly 15 years ago said the man convicted of killing her daughter should get a new trial.
After hearing four hours of testimony at Tyshaunt Love’s appeals hearing today, Charlena Belcher said she doesn’t believe all the facts came out in Love’s 2005 homicide trial. She had said earlier this week that she didn’t want him to get a new trial.
Belcher’s daughter, Iris Fennell Belcher was found shot to death in her McCleaster Street home in Harrisburg on Dec. 20, 1996.
*Justin McShane, representing Love under the state’s Post Conviction Relief Act, wanted to know why Love’s former attorney didn’t get testimony from two inmates who purportedly told police another man, La-Qun Williams, confessed to the crime. McShane also asked Dauphin County public defender Paul Muller why he didn’t try to get Williams, who was serving jail time in New York, to testify in the trial.*
Muller said it was a judgment call to not call the inmates, adding that their testimony wouldn’t have helped the defense’s case.
*McShane also flatly asked Williams if he killed Belcher. He pleaded the fifth amendment, which protects him from incriminating himself.*
Testimony was suspended at 4:30 p.m. A continuation date has not yet been scheduled.
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