Frank R. Chester, convicted of the grisly slashing death of gay artist Anthony Milano, says his trial attorney was so dysfunctional, he had legal representation in name only.
That’s one of many assertions made by Chester in an 88-page brief filed in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month.
In 1988, a Bucks County jury convicted Chester and Richard Laird of first-degree murder and sentenced them to death.
But Chester claims his former attorney, Thomas F. Edwards Jr., had multiple conflicts of interest during his trial, including a pending DUI charge.
Edwards allegedly curried favor with Bucks County authorities to get leniency for his DUI charge by presenting a lame defense for Chester, according to the brief.
Eventually, Edwards was placed in a diversionary program, enabling him to avoid a trial and mandatory jail time.
The brief enumerates a litany of alleged malfeasance on Edwards’ part, including that he failed to properly screen jurors and ignored compelling evidence that Laird was the sole killer.
In 2011, a federal judge voided Chester’s first-degree murder conviction due to improper jury instructions.
Now Chester wants his remaining convictions voided, including second-degree murder and kidnapping.
Chester’s brief acknowledges that he may have kicked or pushed Milano prior to the murder.
But any blood on Chester’s clothing would have been due to Chester pulling Laird off Milano as he slit his throat, the brief states.
Chester implies in the brief that Laird killed Milano due to homophobia.
“As a child, Laird had been repeatedly sexually abused by his father, which would have explained Laird’s irrational intolerance and hatred of homosexuality and the explosive, uncontrolled rage with which he attacked and killed Mr. Milano,” the brief states. “Specifically, Laird’s father would force Laird, when he was a child, to perform oral sex on him. Edwards failed to conduct any investigation regarding this.”
The brief also faults Edwards for failing to convey to jurors the extent of Milano’s inebriation.
“Edwards failed to admit toxicology evidence that would have refuted the kidnapping charge. The autopsy showed that Mr. Milano had a blood-alcohol concentration of ‘at least 9 and most probably approximately 13 drinks of an alcoholic beverage,’ where a ‘drink’ was defined as one ounce of distilled spirit. This evidence proved that Mr. Milano was drunk when he left the bar and would have supported a claim that he left with Laird and Chester voluntarily and thereby refuted the charge of kidnapping.”
The brief describes Edwards as “a drunk, tax cheat, twice-convicted criminal ultimately suspended from the practice of law.”
It highlights the former attorney’s personal problems, including a terminally ill wife, being a named defendant in 17 civil suits, undergoing an IRS probe and having post-traumatic stress disorder due to military service in Vietnam.
In an email, Daniel A. Silverman, an attorney for Chester, summarized the brief’s main points.
“Our appeal seeks to establish that Mr. Chester was represented at trial by an attorney who was laboring under a debilitating conflict of interest that compromised his ability to be a zealous advocate,” Silverman said. “This conflict resulted from the facts that he himself was simultaneously being prosecuted for his own criminal conduct by the same office then prosecuting Mr. Chester and was experiencing a host of crippling personal problems that would have made it impossible for any lawyer to discharge his duties faithfully. We look forward to a full review by the Court of Appeals of this important issue.”
Edwards couldn’t be reached for comment.
But in court papers, Edwards denied laboring under any conflicts during his representation of Chester. He said the pending DUI had no bearing on his performance.
Edwards also denied signing an affidavit that was entered into evidence by Chester’s attorneys indicating that he acknowledged laboring under multiple conflicts of interest.
Bucks County prosecutors have 30 days to reply to Chester’s brief.
Chester, 45, remains on death row at a state prison in Graterford. Laird, 50, is appealing his conviction in the state Supreme Court. He remains on death row at a state prison in Waynesburg.
