A Butler judge Monday decided to consider a post-conviction appeal from a former Kittanning man serving life in prison for a murder in 1990.

Speaking through a video stream from State Correctional Institute Fayette, Steven D. Vogt appeared in front of President Judge Thomas Doerr to ask the judge to consider his appeal of the original conviction. In his fifth appeal, filed June 12, 2017, Vogt alleges that co-defendant Arthur McClearn sent him a letter dated October 2016, in which McClearn recants his trial testimony implicating Vogt in the crime. After holding a hearing between Vogt, his lawyer Nicole Thurner and a prosecutor representing the state attorney general's office, Doerr ruled that the appeal would be heard in further detail at a future hearing.

According to previous reporting, Vogt and Walter Cowfer, now 52, of Export, were found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery by a jury on Jan. 31, 1991 for pelting a Muddy Creek Township man with rocks until he drowned in a strip mine pond.

This is a preview of an article that will appear in Tuesday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.