Defense seeks house arrest for Pa. man in wife’s suicide

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A defense attorney says an elderly western Pennsylvania man jailed for two years and facing sentencing in his wife’s suicide should be spared prison and placed on house arrest.

Eighty-two-year-old Edward Friday pleaded guilty in January in Westmoreland County to a felony charge of causing a suicide.

Rostraver police say 82-year-old Wilma Jean Friday was found with a neck wound in May 2016. They said her husband said he cut her throat as part of a suicide pact and then slit his own wrists and took 20 painkillers. He survived. She died two days later.

The Tribune-Review reports defense attorney Michael Machen cited his client’s health and said he poses no danger to the public, so house arrest would be warranted when he is sentenced Monday.