Centre County’s DA office working to vacate conviction of a state prison inmate
.JPG "The Centre County Courthouse in October 2019.")
The Centre County District Attorney’s Office took the unusual legal step in November of petitioning a state appeals court to release a state prison inmate who it believes was wrongfully convicted.
Andre Aina, 27, argued in an appeal that the firearm he was convicted of carrying without a license was not legally defined as a firearm.
County Assistant District Attorney Matt Metzger agreed and requested the state Superior Court vacate Aina’s conviction so he may be released from Houtzdale state prison in Clearfield County, where he has been for more than four years.
“The issue not only has merit, rather, review of the issue and the evidence presented at trial demonstrates that (Aina) is innocent at count two only,” Metzger wrote.
Aina, of California, was stopped in Boggs Township by state police in April 2015 for speeding. An officer found marijuana, a stun gun and a loaded Norinco SKS rifle in Aina’s vehicle, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
He was charged with one felony count of carrying a firearm without a license, which the state Supreme Court ruled requires the firearm’s barrel length to be considered. He was also charged with lesser misdemeanors.
Metzger wrote in his petition the rifle’s barrel was never measured, and was destroyed after former county President Judge Thomas Kistler found Aina guilty in November 2015.
Kistler sentenced Aina to three to six years in state prison for the firearms conviction, along with lesser concurrent sentences Aina has since served for the remaining convictions.
“A thorough review of the trial exhibits and the transcript ... reveals that the only evidence presented at trial regarding the barrel length of the Norinco SKS rifle was a photograph,” Metzger wrote. “Presenting evidence in such a fashion was insufficient for the commonwealth to meet its burden at trial.”
Metzger’s petition to the state Superior Court is pending, court spokeswoman Kim Bathgate said Thursday. She declined to release additional information, including a timeline for the petition to be ruled upon.