Steve Szarewicz and 40 years of appeal for PA murder

A jury convicted him in the 1981 killing of 25-year-old Billy Merriwether, who was shot twice in the back of the head and once in the chest as his body was left facedown on a rural road in western Pennsylvania.

There were no fingerprints, no eyewitness statements and no DNA evidence linking Szarewicz to the crime scene. The case was based on the words of four prison informants, all of whom testified that Szarewicz confessed to them, and three of the four recanted. Another inmate told the court that the fourth witness against Szarewicz made up his story to settle a score.

Still, in 1983, a Pittsburgh jury found the informants' testimony credible enough to convict Szarewicz, even though they had expressed concerns to the judge about the lack of physical evidence.

Today, the verdict is still being appealed, and Szarewicz is asking the Higher Regional Court to reduce his life sentence to 10 to 20 years.

A national database of more than 3,400 exonerations since 1989 includes more than 200 in which prison informants played a role in the wrongful convictions.

When courts overturn convictions based on informant testimony, it's usually because prosecutors made a deal with the witness and didn't disclose it, said Professor Bruce Antkowiak, an attorney at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and a former defense attorney and prosecutor.

“Our court system places the issue of credibility at the altar of a jury,” Antkowiak said.

Merriwether's problems mounted when he was killed. Unemployed and living on welfare, he was known as someone who “struggled at the drop of a hat,” an acquaintance told investigators at the time.

According to reports, some guys with organized crime connections in his New Kensington neighborhood were after him because they thought he had stolen from them.

Merriwether also had problems in his love life. Both he and his girlfriend were married to other people. And his girlfriend's father – a now-deceased local gangster named Mitch Roditis – was upset that Merriwether, who was black, was dating his white daughter.

About 7 a.m. when Merriwether was killed, a dog handler about 23 miles northeast of Pittsburgh reported hearing a single report that sounded like a gunshot. Moments later three more sounded. A nearby road patrol officer saw a car speeding past with two men in it. They drove off, then drove away, leaving Merriwether's body behind.

Prosecutors presented a simple theory of the crime: It was a $5,000 contract killing. They argued that Roditis, who was never charged, led Szarewicz and two other men to kill Merriwether because he was with Roditis' daughter.

The murder case “wasn’t a win,” former Allegheny County Assistant District Attorney Chris Conrad recalled in an interview this spring. “It wasn't a case where you come in and get confessions and fingerprints and just great physical evidence.”

Szarewicz focused primarily on the prison informants, three of whom were related.

In September 1982, witness Dave Cannon wrote a letter saying that it would not be right for Szarewicz to go to prison and that Cannon had only agreed to testify because he thought it might help him get out to go to prison.

At trial, Cannon changed his story again and testified that he wrote the letter because he was afraid of Szarewicz. Contacted by The Associated Press by telephone in March, Cannon stood by his statement that Szarewicz had confessed to him in the Allegheny County Jail.

Eight months after Szarewicz's conviction, another informant who testified against him, Ernie Bevilacqua, wrote in a sworn statement: “I lied about everything I said about Steve and I would go to court to help him and to say what really happened.”

Years later, Bevilacqua said he only recanted out of fear of Szarewicz, his friends and fellow prisoners.

The third informant to make a turnaround in the Szarewicz case was Rick Bowen.

About six months after Szarewicz's sentencing, Bowen approached defense attorney Pat Thomassey at the Westmoreland County courthouse. Thomassey later signed an affidavit in which he said Bowen “indicated to me that he actually lied in the case against Steven Szarewicz in order to negotiate a deal for himself and avoid prosecution for various crimes.” Bowen later denied the exchange .

The fourth informant to testify against Szarewicz, Kenny Knight, did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment. When police first questioned him about Merriwether's murder, he did not comment on Szarewicz, even when asked about it. He later said he was afraid of Szarewicz and that he withheld information because he didn't want to get involved.

In a 1992 trial, a judge declared the credibility of witnesses to be “about as low as a snake's belly.” Prosecutor Maria Copetas did not defend them, saying they “at some point recanted, then recanted their objections, and then refused to testify in court.”

These days, Szarewicz spends time working on his case. He has a job as a prison guard that pays him about $75 a month, walks regularly and attends Bible study.

“If I didn’t have my faith, I certainly wouldn’t be alive to fight again,” Szarewicz wrote several years ago. “Is there anyone out there who is appalled by this blatant abuse of the system? If so, please help us?”