DA seeks death penalty for Pa. murder

November 25, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — A prosecutor in north-central Pennsylvania is seeking the death penalty for a man accused of setting up a shotgun slaying from his jail cell.

Lycoming County District Attorney Eric Linhardt filed notice Monday that he is seeking capital punishment for 25-year-old county prison inmate Maurice Patterson. The man who confessed to shooting Eric Sawyer of Philadelphia in a Williamsport alley last year has testified that Patterson ordered him to do so.

At Patterson’s preliminary hearing in June, his lawyer said authorities hadn’t presented enough evidence to require his client to stand trial.