16-05-2025
Former Somerset DA Jeff Thomas denied new trial by appeals court
SOMERSET COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — A state appeals court has denied former Somerset County District Attorney Jeff Thomas's attempt for a new trial.
A panel of three Pennsylvania Superior Court judges released a 25-page decision, in which they stated they side with the rulings made during Thomas's 2023 trial and conviction, saying they found his list of claims had 'no merit,' according to WTAJ media partners at The Tribune-Democrat. The decision affirms the sentence that was handed to Thomas in August 2023, which was up to seven years in prison on convictions of strangulation, unlawful restraint, criminal respass and indecent assault.
Thomas was separately acquitted of sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault by jurors during the trial. The conviction stemmed from an encounter with a Windber woman when Thomas walked into her home in 2021 and, despite being told to stay away, groped and assaulted her before she fled upstairs.
Several of the appeals focused on evidence that Thomas argued was improperly excluded from the trial and rulings related to the Rape Shield Law, which protects victims of sex crimes from having details and allegations about their pasts used to discredit them in court, except for certain instances in which that history involves the defendant. Judges wrote that it wasn't the case in Thomas's 2023 case.
Thomas attempted to have cellphone messages that the woman sent to another person, in one instance, an article of her clothing, used as evidence, and was overruled by the trial judge. Superior Court Judges Deborah Kunselman, Megan Sullivan and Jill Beck said their review showed the trial court did not abuse its discretion regarding the shield law.
In fact, the law exists in Pennsylvania to prevent the type of evidence that Thomas looked to offer, they wrote, saying that evidence would only 'inflame' jurors' minds with details of little relevance to the charges in question. The court also ruled against the argument that the evidence was not sufficient enough to convict him of criminal trespass in relation to the night of the attack, saying that just because Thomas had visited the home before didn't mean he had 'license' to walk in any time he felt like it.
'In this case, (the woman) plainly testified that Thomas was not licensed or privileged to enter her residence on the night in question and that he was aware that he was not welcome in her home,' Beck wrote in the panel's opinion, adding that evidence showed Thomas himself later admitted he was 'not supposed to be there.'
The panel also sided with the trial court's rulings on unlawful restraint, noting that the evidence was presented to support Thomas's conviction. Thomas is currently serving his sentence at SCI-Waymart in Wayne County.
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