A lawyer representing a Lyndora man serving life in prison for first-degree murder argued Thursday that prosecutors failed to prove there was malice and planning in the murder.

On Dec. 2, Common Pleas Judge William Shaffer sentenced Ishemer Ramsey, 24, to life in prison for homicide in the first degree and other charges after finding him guilty of killing Melissa Barto in 2017 and dumping her body in Lawrence County. The verdict was made after a four-day, non-jury trial in October.

After the sentencing, Ramsey's court-appointed lawyer at the time, Christopher Capozzi, asked Shaffer for a judgment of acquittal and argued the “prosecutor's misconduct was so pervasive and prejudicial” that it denied Ramsey's right to a fair trial.

During Thursday's hearing, Ramsey's new court-appointed lawyer, Rebecca Black, accused prosecutors of manipulating a witness to testify in the prosecution's favor.

An argument supporting Ramsey's side was filed in January by Capozzi, and the hearing Thursday was held in Shaffer's court with Assistant District Attorney Terri Schultz to discuss the matter with Black. Ramsey appeared by video from a state prison in Houtzdale.

Black was appointed to the case after Capozzi filed a motion to withdraw March 9. Capozzi wrote that he made the request because he found it “personally repugnant” to continue to represent Ramsey. Capozzi wrote that he fundamentally disagreed with the way Ramsey intended to handle the case.

Specifically, Capozzi wrote, he found certain requests Ramsey made to be repugnant and he worried that his continued representation would pit him against his client.

After a careful review of the trial transcript, Black also didn't believe Schultz had met the burden of proof of first-degree murder. She said the prosecution didn't prove during the trial that Ramsey planned to murder Barto and had malicious intent.

Instead, Black said, the testimony presented through various witnesses didn't prove that level of burden.

“Plus, they were all conflicting each other's testimony,” Black said during the hearing. “I don't believe the burden was met for that degree of homicide. I didn't see anything that was even an effort to prove malice or planning. The effort wasn't there.”

Schultz responded by noting that during Ramsey's trial, Garrick Lapusnick, a former member of the state police's Forensic Services Unit, testified that the gunshot wound to Barto's head was made by Ramsey in close quarters.

Black corrected her by pointing out Lapusnick never named Ramsey as the shooter and that the gunshot wound didn't indicate the exact distance the shot was made.

“That's a direct misstatement right now,” Black said

Schultz contended that the handful of witnesses called to testify more than proved that Ramsey planned Barto's death.

Black also continued Capozzi's argument that Schultz's behavior during the trial crossed over into prosecutorial misconduct. Black noted that during the trial several witnesses called by Schultz mentioned police procedures that violated Ramsey's rights.

During the first day of the trial, Schultz was questioning state police Trooper Brian Knirnschild and asked him if he spoke with Ramsey as part of his investigation into Barto's disappearance. Knirnschild said Ramsey invoked his right to an attorney. Capozzi interrupted, asking Shaffer to declare the proceeding a mistrial.

“She shouldn't have asked that,” Capozzi said. “It's not what we do. We have a Fifth Amendment (right).”

Shaffer declined to declare a mistrial at the time.

Black also argued that prosecutors intimidated James Howard-George, Ramsey's accomplice, by using inappropriate criminal charges against him.

Howard-George originally faced, among other charges, conspiring to commit criminal homicide in Barto's murder. But Black said it didn't make sense since there was no evidence to support the claim that Howard-George helped to murder Barto.

Black said the charge was held over Howard-George to force him to testify in Ramsey's trial.

“The prosecution knew it wasn't justified to charge him with conspiracy. He was forced to testify,” Black said.

She noted that Howard-George sat in Butler County Prison for 30 months before his case was resolved. And it was only resolved after Howard-George testified.

During the trial, Howard-George testified that Ramsey forced him under the threat of violence to help dispose of Barto's body.

In his testimony, Howard-George explained that he didn't conspire to help murder Barto, but instead helped clean up the aftermath.

“Ramsey pulled out his gun — he's always got a gun on him — and he told me that what happened to her is going to happen to me,” Howard-George said during the trial.

Howard-George eventually pleaded guilty Jan. 30 to abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped the charge of conspiracy to commit criminal homicide. He was immediately paroled with credit for time already served in jail.

“This was intentionally done so that he would testify. But (Capozzi) couldn't attack him for this because it was concealed,” Black said. “Prosecutors believed the testimony of (Howard-George). They asked the court to believe it, so they knew he didn't conspire to commit homicide. They had it hanging over his head.”

Black noted Howard-George said during the trial that he wasn't testifying in exchange for a lenient deal.

“That doesn't add up,” Black said. “It doesn't make sense. He's not expecting a deal, but the day after he takes a plea deal. That must have been in the works for some time.”

Black said this amounted to prosecutorial misconduct with the aim to deprive the defendant of a fair trial.

Capozzi made a third request in his original motion for which Black argued.

During sentencing, Shaffer broke from sentencing guidelines for the other charges — including abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. Guidelines called for probation upon Ramsey's release from prison, but Shaffer instead added two to four years to Ramsey's life sentence.

“In my opinion, those guidelines are absurd in a case like this,” Shaffer explained in court. Capozzi argued that Shaffer abused his discretion by doing so.

Shaffer said he would issue an opinion on the matter later.