Death row inmate decides to keep attorney; appeal coming soon in Greensburg torture killing

Renatta Signorini, Tribune-Review, Greensburg, Pa.
·2 min read

May 7—A death row inmate convicted of the 2010 torture and murder of a mentally disabled woman in Greensburg will stick with his court-appointed appeal attorney after previously attempting to fire him.

Ricky Smyrnes, 35, formerly of North Huntingdon, told Westmoreland County Judge Scott Mears he intends to keep Thomas Farrell on board.

"I cannot represent myself," Smyrnes said Friday by video from SCI Phoenix in Montgomery County.

He was convicted in 2013 of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection in connection with the fatal stabbing of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty in an apartment he shared with five others.

Farrell was appointed in 2017 to handle an appeal that has yet to be filed. Smyrnes requested a new attorney this year, but Farrell later filed court papers that indicated he intended to stay on the job.

Farrell told Mears on Friday that Smyrnes asked him to file two motions — one requesting a mitigation specialist and a second for an investigator. Farrell said he plans to file the appeal soon.

He has been granted multiple extensions to complete the document.

"We're working on it, getting it together," he said. "There is going to be a finish line to this."

Mears was sympathetic, noting the voluminous records in the case.

"I understand why it's taking you awhile to get this," he said.

County prosecutors charged that Smyrnes was the head of the group of three men and three woman who held Daugherty captive for more than two days, and beat and tortured her before tying her with Christmas lights, stabbing her in the heart and discarding her in a trash can left under a truck in a snow-covered parking lot.

Witnesses said Smyrnes led a series of "family meetings" in which he and his roommates voted to kill Daugherty.

Smyrnes' initial appeal was rejected in 2016 and that was upheld by the state's Supreme Court. A month after Smyrnes filed another appeal in 2017, Farrell was appointed to research and prepare a challenge of the conviction and sentence.

Renatta Signorini is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Renatta at 724-837-5374, rsignorini@triblive.com or via Twitter .