A three-judge Commonwealth Court panel has rejected an appeal by convicted murderer Jack Edmundson Jr., who was seeking the return of $18,733 and other assets seized in the investigation of the killing of Tunnelton gun shop owner Frank Petro in December of 2013.
The 49-year-old Edmundson claimed that the money and property he had bought, including an ATV, were legitimately his and were unconnected to his extortion plot against Petro, but the court ruled that District Attorney Pat Dougherty and his team offered “extensive credible evidence…demonstrating that the $145,000 in brown bag lottery money Edmundson took from Petro was the only possible source” of the money. The court also refuted Edmundson’s contention that Judge William Martin was biased against him.
The decision is a second loss in the last several weeks for Edmundson. On November 14th, a Superior Court panel rejected his appeal seeking to reverse his petition for relief from the conviction, which he based on a claim of ineffective counsel, which he said caused him to plead guilty in order to avoid the death penalty. He is serving life without parole at SCI-Benner in Centre County.
