Indiana County President Judge Thomas Bianco yesterday denied Ronald Weiss’s motion to dismiss his murder conviction and set him free.
Weiss, who is now 72 years old, based his motion on a claim of double jeopardy. He was found guilty of first degree murder in 1997 for the October 1978 slaying of 16-year-old Barbara Bruzda, whose body was found months later beneath a pile of leaves in a wooded area of Young Township. Weis and Bruzda had been playing pool at her family’s bar in Tunnelton on the night she disappeared.
In 2018, federal judge Mark Hornack reversed the conviction because of the prosecutorial misconduct of then-Deputy State Attorney General John Scott Robinette and a state trooper, who claimed that two prison inmates who testified against Weiss were not promised special treatment in exchange for their testimony, when they clearly were. Hornack warned at the time that double jeopardy might come into play, but Judge Bianco has consistently ruled that the conduct of the trial and whether or not Weiss murdered Bruzda are two separate issues.
State Superior Court sent the case back to Bianco for further action last October. His ruling automatically returns to the appellate court for its review.
