Crime & Safety
State's High Court Refuses to Hear Appeal of Nazareth Killer
A Northampton County jury convicted Mark Williams of the June 2009 killing of Patrick O'Brien.
Pennsylvania's Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of Mark Williams, the man convicted of killing Patrick O'Brien in June 2009, according to a report in the Express-Times.
Williams was convicted of first-degree murder in March 2010 and is serving a life sentence without parole.
The killing was the first murder in Nazareth in 30 years.
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The appeal was brought to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, according to the Express-Times report, because Williams' attorney, Robert Patterson, believed the expert who testified during the trial couldn't exactly pinpoint whether the cause of death was asphyxiation or strangulation.
The difference, according to Patterson, is whether Williams intended to kill O'Brien or accidentally killed him by pushing his face into wet mulch.
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