Duncan convicted in drug informant's slaying

WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) — Two men — one from Amherst — have been con­victed in the mur­der almost a decade ago of a west­ern Penn­syl­va­nia man who was an infor­mant respon­si­ble for the arrest of one of the defen­dants on drug charges.

Jurors in Wash­ing­ton County on Tues­day night con­victed 55-year-old John Bron­son Jr. of Cal­i­for­nia, Pa., and 35-year-old Michael Dun­can of Amherst, Ohio, of first-degree mur­der and crim­i­nal con­spir­acy in the Feb­ru­ary 2003 execution-style shoot­ing death of 45-year-old John New­man. Bron­son was also con­victed of crim­i­nal solicitation.

Author­i­ties said the defen­dants and 41-year-old Howard Irwin, of Charleroi, plot­ted to kill New­man, who had been respon­si­ble for Bronson’s 2002 arrest. Irwin pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

The defen­dants tes­ti­fied Mon­day that they had noth­ing to do with the slay­ing. Both face life in prison with­out pos­si­bil­ity of parole.

Posted by Jason Hawk on Jan 25 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.