Franklin County man to be retried for first-degree murder

A Franklin County man serving life in prison for the murder of an Antrim Township man three decades ago will get a new trial in accordance with a federal judge's ruling earlier this year. 

A trial for Ronald Harshman, 70, will start June 17 and continue for two weeks, according to Franklin County District Attorney Matt Fogal. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on May 15. 

Harshman, who was living in Antrim Township before his imprisonment, is in prison without parole for the murder of his wife's lover, Melvin Elwood Snyder. Snyder disappeared in 1985, and Harshman was charged with his murder 15 years later.

About a month ago, the U.S. District Judge Christopher C. Conner of the Middle District of Pennsylvania vacated Harshman's conviction, saying the state failed to reveal evidence to the defense that likely would have changed the outcome of his trial, the judge said in a memorandum. The judge directed the state to retry him within 90 days or provide for his release.

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Harshman in January 2017 filed for relief from his 2001 conviction. A federal magistrate judge recommended last July that he be set free or retried. The district judge agreed with that recommendation and granted Harshman's request. 

'A twisted story'

A jury convicted Harshman on July 13, 2001, after “a trial which presented a twisted story of affairs, angry outbursts, circumstantial evidence and little forensic evidence,” according to the magistrate judge's report.

Harshman in May 1984 learned of an affair between his wife, Teresa, and his married co-worker Snyder, according to court records. Teresa Harshman told her husband that she was leaving for Montana with Snyder. Harshman left to confront Snyder. Their vehicles collided head-on, and Harshman fired shots near Snyder. Harshman was charged with recklessly endangering, but the charges were dropped at Snyder’s request. Snyder left with Teresa Harshman for Montanna.

Ronald Harshman was served with divorce papers in 1985, and three days later he bought a .25-caliber handgun, according to court records. Snyder disappeared four days later on May 25, 1985. Snyder's truck was found two days later in Reiserstown, Md. Only after investigators told his wife, Joan Snyder, about the truck did she report his disappearance. She found a .25-caliber shell casing in the Snyder barn on Grant Shook Road in Antrim Township and gave it to police. Snyder did not own a .25.

Snyder was declared legally dead in 1993, according to court records. Investigators searched the former Harshman property in 1999 for shell casings and found a single casing, which a ballistics expert matched to the shell casing from Snyder’s barn.

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Harshman was charged with first-degree murder following a recommendation by a grand jury, which Nelson convened to review unsolved cases. Snyder's widow, Joan Snyder Hall, was also charged, and court documents alleged she told Harshman Snyder would be alone in their barn the morning of May 25, 1985. 

Witnesses told police they saw a truck like Harshman's parked near Snyder's barn that morning. The next day, Hall went to Harshman's home in Antrim Township and saw her husband's body lying on the basement floor.

Franklin County Court Judge Carol Van Horn determined that Hall was an unwitting participant and charges against the widow were dropped.

Jailhouse deals hidden from defense

In seeking post-conviction relief after losing his initial appeal, Harshman claimed three inmates who testified for the prosecution had received favors from the state. The testimony from two of them, Randi Kohr and Keith Granlun, was "damning" and "constitute(d) confessions by Harshman to murder," Conner said. 

Kohr's testimony was key to Harshman's conviction. He testified that Harshman told him that he had killed a man by shooting him five times, and the body would not be found. Kohr also testified that he was not testifying in exchange for any favors from the state.

Letters that Nelson wrote to the Pennsylvania State Parole Board on behalf of Kohr came to light in 2009 during a post-conviction hearing. Nelson - who died that same year as one of the longest-serving district attorneys in state history - wrote the letters more than six months prior to Harshman’s trial. In the first letter Nelson asked that Kohr be released early and said the board should consider his cooperation in the murder investigation. In a second letter he reiterated that he had promised Kohr that a letter would be written on his behalf.

Kohr testified in a Superior Court in 2009 that he had asked Nelson to write the parole board, but not as part of a deal for his testimony. The state court found that no deal existed.

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The judge at the U.S. Middle District Court in Pennsylvania disagreed. Conner wrote that he agreed with Mehalchick's view that the fact that the board did not grant parole did not negate Nelson’s action for Kohr. 

Conner wrote that the federal court also disagreed with the state court's decisions concerning Granlun. Granlun said under oath at a post-conviction relief hearing that he testified falsely at Harshman's trial in exchange for favorable treatment: He was released from jail two hours after his trial testimony; his fines were remitted; and he secured temporary release for an inmate he was friendly with in order to see his dying mother. 

Conner wrote he disagreed with the state's argument that, in order to prevail, Harshman had to show that the suppressed evidence "would have changed the outcome" of his trial. Rather, he had to demonstrate "a reasonable probability" that the result would have been different. 

Conner said that without the suppressed evidence, Harshman's counsel "was unable to effectively cross-examine Kohr and Granlun regarding bias or favorable treatment. he jury thus heard uncontradicted testimony from two Commonwealth witnesses who claimed that Harshman had admitted to the murder, and who further testified that they personally had nothing to gain from taking the witness stand."