NEW CASTLE, PA. Location change requested for retrial

A May 1 hearing will determine if the trial will be moved.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A man accused of a quadruple homicide is asking that his retrial be conducted elsewhere.
Thomas H. Kimbell Jr., 39, of Pulaski, is set to got to trial next month in Lawrence County for the stabbing death of his neighbor, Bonnie Dryfuse, 34; her daughters, Jacqueline, 7, and Heather, 4; and her niece, Stephanie Herko, 5.
"In addition to the usual publicity before a trial, this one has already gone through a trial which was subject to much publicity and a reversal which got more publicity," said his attorney, Thomas Leslie, in asking that the trial be moved.
A Lawrence County jury convicted Kimbell In 1998. He was sentenced to death for the child murders and given life in prison for Dryfuse's killing.
New trial granted: He was granted a retrial last year when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that a judge blocked crucial testimony at Kimbell's first trial.
Leslie had appealed the convictions, contending he was not allowed to question Stephanie's mother, Mary Herko, about changes in her story.
Police say Herko was on the telephone with Dryfuse on June 15, 1994, shortly before she and the children were slain. At trial, Herko quoted Dryfuse as telling her, "someone is pulling up the driveway" before hanging up.
Herko said in a statement to police that Dryfuse said "Jake is pulling up the driveway."
Herko's brother and Dryfuse's husband, Tom Dryfuse, goes by the nickname Jake. He discovered the bodies shortly after 3 p.m. -- 40 minutes after Herko said her call to Bonnie Dryfuse ended.
Leslie said Kimbell's second trial could start sometime next month.
"I think its going to be real hard to find a jury around here, where people don't know anything about this case," he said.
A hearing to determine if the trial will be moved to another county is planned for 1:30 p.m. May 1 in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court.
Prosecutor Anthony J. Krastek, senior deputy attorney general, could not be reached.