CLEARFIELD – Clearfield County District Attorney William A. Shaw, Jr. yesterday said that the Superior Court of Pennsylvania has extended an order, vacating Andrew Callahan’s re-sentence to life in prison for the Nov. 5, 1997 murder of Micah Pollock and remanding the case for a new trial.
Shaw said that he received word of the decision, which was filed on Dec. 2, sometime last week. He said that “in a nut shell,” the jury wasn’t given appropriate instructions. He said Callahan was granted his second trial for the same reason.
According to Shaw, the Commonwealth can either appeal the superior court’s decision or conduct the case’s third trial. He said they have 30 days to decide how to proceed.
Shaw said if the case heads to trial again, it could be scheduled for early spring.
“It’s very disappointing for us and the family. It’s just not fair to the victims. We have done this twice now,” he said.
He said that the Commonwealth tried and convicted Callahan initially in October 1998 and again in May 2007.
“When do we get to tell the family that this case is done? It’s not fair to them,” Shaw said.
“But we’ll do what we’ve got to do. We’re going to make sure that the conviction is not overturned, and he does not get out of prison.”
Callahan was found guilty on all counts at the conclusion of his second trial in May 2007. He faced charges of first-degree murder, third-degree murder, aggravated assault and abuse of a corpse.
Click here to read coverage from the case’s second trial.
