Dismissal sought in 1979 murder

Associated Press

WASHINGTON, Pa.

An attorney for a man facing a fourth trial in the murder of a teenage clerk at a southwestern Pennsylvania dry cleaner almost four decades ago says he plans to argue for dismissal of the charge on the grounds that the case wasn’t brought in a timely fashion.

Sixty-two-year-old William “Tippy” Wallace is serving life in the August 1979 shooting death of 63-year-old Carl Luisi Sr. in Canonsburg but faces retrial in the death of 15-year-old Tina Spalla.

The (Washington) Observer-Reporter says defense attorney Dennis Popojas said at a Washington County hearing Friday that he plans to argue that the case wasn’t brought quickly enough after his client’s death penalty conviction in Spalla’s death was vacated in 2007 and an appeals court upheld that in 2008.