by peter e. bortner
Robert J. Eckert Jr. must stay in prison for murdering his live-in girlfriend almost 25 years ago in New Castle Township, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
In a one-sentence order filed Tuesday in Pottsville, the court declined to consider the latest appeal filed by Eckert, 49, of Mount Laffee.
The order marks the third time the Supreme Court has declined to hear Eckert's case. The state Superior Court also has rejected several of his appeals.
As a result, Eckert will remain behind bars, where he is serving a life sentence for fatally stabbing Marlene Marie Quercia, 33. Eckert is serving his sentence at State Correctional Institution/Rockview in Centre County.
State police at Frackville charged Eckert stabbed Quercia in the chest with a hunting knife about 2:45 p.m. July 7, 1989, at the couple's modular home on New Street.
After a three-day trial, a jury convicted Eckert on May 10, 1990, of first-degree murder and recklessly endangering another person.
Judge, now President Judge, William E. Baldwin, who presided over Eckert's trial, sentenced Eckert on Dec. 17, 1990, to spend the rest of his life in prison.
The Superior Court denied Eckert's first appeal in 1991, and the Supreme Court in 1992 refused to consider an appeal of that ruling.
Baldwin rejected additional appeals by Eckert in 1995, 1997, 2002, 2010 and 2012. The Superior and Supreme courts rejected his appeals in 2004, while the Superior Court also turned him down in 2011.
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania also dismissed an appeal by Eckert in 2001.