State High Court Upholds Death Penalty For 'Greensburg 6' Ringleader

GREENSBURG, Pa. (KDKA/AP) - The state Supreme Court has upheld the first-degree murder conviction and death penalty imposed on a man in the torture death of a mentally disabled woman in western Pennsylvania.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that the commonwealth's highest court said Wednesday that there was enough evidence for the Westmoreland County jury to convict 30-year-old Ricky Smyrnes and to sentence him to death.

Smyrnes was one of six people charged in the February 2010 death of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty in a dingy Greensburg apartment. He argued that evidence was improperly allowed and jurors didn't correctly weigh penalty phase evidence.

In 2013, it took a jury just under four hours to condemn Smyrnes to death. Investigators called him the ringleader of the so-called "Greensburg 6."

The state Supreme Court last fall overturned the death sentence imposed on 27-year-old Melvin Knight, saying jurors should have been told that he had no criminal record.

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