The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

July 6, 2009

UPDATE: Convicted killer rebuffed by federal appeals court

By Joe Pinchot

SHARON —

An appeals court has refused to hear the appeal of Ronald L. Fuller, who was sentenced to life in prison after his conviction of homicide in the May 29, 1999 shotgun killing of Jeremy Farrand, 13, of Sharon.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, said June 22 that Fuller could not show that he was denied a civil right.

The court said U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Cathy Bissoon, Pittsburgh, set forth the reasons why the appeal lacks merit in her Jan. 14 opinion and order.

Fuller, 33, who is imprisoned in Frackville, claimed his trial attorney, Wayne Hundertmark of Venango County, should have objected to the Mercer County District Attorney presenting perjured testimony and vouching for a witness.

State courts previously determined that some witness testimony was inconsistent, but prosecutors did not solicit any testimony they knew was false.

Hundertmark would have been overruled if he had objected, Judge Bissoon said.

Fuller also criticized Hundertmark for failing to object when prosecutors decided not to argue there might have been an accomplice, and for failing to object to the jury being shown photographs of the victim.

Bissoon said Hundertmark’s strategy was that Fuller was innocent, and seeking to have him viewed as an accomplice would be inconsistent with that strategy.

She also said the photos were not so graphic as to cause the trial to be unfair.

Fuller filed the appeal without an attorney, and the appellate court denied his request to have one appointed.

Jeremy was killed at a home on Prindle Street. He was watching television with two friends when Fuller, looking for a man who sometimes stayed there and was cooperating with authorities in an unrelated robbery case, burst in with a sawed-off shotgun.

Although Fuller shot the wrong person, his bragging about the killing was reported to police, who found the murder weapon at Fuller’s apartment.

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