Killer to spend life in prison

A jury from Mercer County was bused to Clearfield to hear the murder case.

CLEARFIELD, Pa. (AP) — A man avoided the death penalty and will spend life in prison for beating his mother with a 5-pound plastic weight, cutting her neck with a steak knife and then reading the Bible to her as she bled to death.

A jury on Thursday recommended a life sentence for Jesse James Campbell, 21, of Houtzdale, in the March 13 slaying of Cindy Jo Coleman, 49.

Among other witnesses in the penalty phase of Campbell’s trial was his maternal grandmother, who asked the jury to spare his life.

“I still want a part of Cindy to hold onto,” Doris Coleman told the jury.

The jury, selected in Mercer County and bused about three hours east to Clearfield County for the highly publicized trial, deliberated about 90 minutes Thursday before rejecting the death penalty in favor of a life sentence without parole. The same jury had convicted Campbell of first-degree murder Wednesday.

Campbell took the stand in his own defense and admitted he got into an argument with his mother over a computer that he took from her house. But he said he had gone to bed March 12 after watching a movie with his then-girlfriend, Kacey Fisher, and didn’t leave her apartment until police knocked on the door the next day.

Campbell’s attorney tried to pin the murder on Fisher, who told police Campbell left her apartment in the middle of the night and later recounted the murder to her. She told investigators that Campbell described hitting his mother in the head with the plastic weight, cutting her neck and then reading the Bible to her.

Prosecutor William Shaw shared with the jury writings by Campbell in which he said he could kill his mother with a dull steak knife and not feel any remorse.

Campbell said the writings were pure fantasy and were a way for him to let his feelings out, as he had been encouraged to do by counselors.