High court to hear appeal of conviction in wife’s drowning

YORK, Pa. (AP) -

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a man accused of killing his wife and then faking an all-terrain vehicle accident to cover up the slaying.

Joseph Fitzpatrick III, 46, is accused of having drowned 43-year-old Annemarie Fitzpatrick in a Chanceford Township creek in June 2012 and then telling police they crashed their ATV in the water. Authorities allege he wanted out of his marriage, was emotionally involved with another woman and had a $1.7 million life insurance policy on his wife.

Defense attorney Chris Ferro had questioned whether a note written by Annemarie Fitzpatrick should have been ruled inadmissible as heresay and barred from the trial. The state’s highest court on Monday agreed to consider that issue.

“We are incredibly excited,” Ferro said in a statement. “I have always believed this was our most important and strongest issue on appeal. We are looking forward to the challenge before us and hope we can win a new trial for an innocent man.”

The York County district attorney’s office said in a statement that officials were “extremely confident” that the high court would affirm the conviction and find “just as the Superior Court held on two occasions … that the evidence against the defendant overwhelmingly supported his conviction for first-degree murder.”

Hours before her death, prosecutors have said, Annemarie Fitzpatrick wrote, dated and signed a note in her day-planner at work saying “If anything happens to me - Joe.” She also wrote an email to herself titled “if something happens to me” saying the couple had marital problems and a huge log had almost fallen on her the night before.

“Joe was on the pile with the log and had me untying a tarp directly below,” the email said, according to prosecutors.

A year ago, the Superior Court reinstated Fitzpatrick’s conviction and said the note was allowed as evidence to show the victim’s state of mind, an exception to the hearsay rule. The court said the email wasn’t admissible but ruled that its admission was harmless “in light of the overwhelming evidence against Fitzpatrick.”

A judge had thrown out the verdict after the defense argued that prosecutors had failed to prove their case. The appeals court disagreed and ordered Fitzpatrick re-sentenced on the first-degree murder conviction, which carries a mandatory life term without possibility of parole.