MEADVILLE —
A Conneautville area woman is set to go to trial in Crawford County Court of Common Pleas later this month for allegedly shooting her husband to death with a shotgun at their Hayfield Township home more than one year ago.
Patricia Oliver, 54, of 16782 S. Norrisville Road, Conneautville, is charged by Pennsylvania State Police with criminal homicide for the Oct. 5, 2010, death of her husband, Anthony D. Oliver, 63. Police allege Mrs. Oliver shot her husband just before 10 a.m. that day with a single-barrel 12-gauge shotgun during a domestic dispute.
Police allege Mrs. Oliver shot her husband in the bedroom of their home after, she allegedly told them, Mr. Oliver had gone into the bedroom and called her derogatory names. Police allege Mrs. Oliver reached under the couple’s bed, pulled out a shotgun that her husband kept under the bed, and then shot him once.
Judge John Spataro, who will preside over the upcoming trial, has denied a defense motion to suppress a video-taped police interview of Oliver in which she allegedly confessed.
At a county court hearing two months ago on whether to suppress Oliver’s alleged confession to police, Jeff Misko, an assistant county public defender representing Oliver, argued Oliver didn’t knowingly, voluntarily or intelligently waive her rights to be interviewed by police following her arrest because she was too distraught to know the legal implications of her action.
However, a ruling issued by Spataro in December found Oliver did knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently waive her rights and fully comprehended the nature of her actions, “despite her extreme emotional state.”
“At the time of Defendant’s (Oliver’s) waiver, she was coherent and appropriately responsive in expressing her understanding of her Miranda rights and her voluntary waiver of those rights,” Spataro ruled.
“If anything, her lamentations lend credibility to the content of her statement,” Spataro continued in his opinion denying the defense’s request to suppress the statement. “At no time during the interrogation did she ask for the interview to cease. Instead, she offered appropriate, albeit sometimes highly emotional answers to the questions asked of her.”
Mrs. Oliver remains in the Crawford County jail where she has been held without bond since her arrest on Oct. 5, 2010.
Mrs. Oliver’s husband was a convicted sex offender, according to the Pennsylvania State Police Megan’s Law website — a public registry of convicted sex offenders.
Anthony D. Oliver was convicted on a charge of sexual abuse in July 2004 in New York, according to the website.
In early October 2010 following the shooting incident, The Niagara Falls, N.Y., Gazette, reported Anthony D. Oliver was a retired traffic officer for the Niagara Falls Police Department. After retiring from the force around 16 years ago, according to the Gazette, he took a management position with a western New York-based solid waste disposal service and was tried in 2004 following reports of sexual improprieties.
Mr. Oliver pleaded guilty that year to a charge of sexual abuse stemming from the employment incident, according to the Gazette.
Keith Gushard can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.
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