Lawyers for an East Hills man awaiting a retrial for a 1995 fire that killed three firefighters say his murder case should be dismissed because investigators' misdeeds in the first trial trigger Pennsylvania's “double jeopardy” protections.
Gregory Brown, Jr., 39, was convicted in 1997 on three counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of firefighters Patricia Conroy, Marc Kolenda and Capt. Thomas Brooks in the Bricelyn Street fire Feb. 14, 1995. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Joseph K. Williams III granted him a new trial in 2014 based on evidence that investigators promised to pay two key witnesses but didn't disclose that to jurors in his original trial.