Manslaughter case postponed

FORT EDWARD — The court was ready Wednesday to hear pretrial arguments in the manslaughter case of a man accused of causing a propane explosion that killed six people. But the proceeding came to a quick end when prosecutors gave the defense a large pile of witness statements.

Washington County District Attorney Kevin Kortright was not required to give Steven McComsey's lawyer the material until the start of pretrial hearings. The documents are prior statements by the prosecution's potential witnesses who are to testify at either pretrial hearings or at trial.

The material provided Wednesday to Public Defender Michael Mercure was not made public.

Mercure told Washington County Judge Kelly McKeighan that he would need time to review the papers. The judge postponed the hearing until Nov. 2.

McComsey, 34, faces six counts of second-degree manslaughter for the July 13, 2011, propane blast at a Salem rental home that killed his girlfriend, Tammy Palmer, her son and granddaughter and three others. McComsey was allegedly in the basement where the gas was leaking moments before the house exploded.

Earlier, Kortright offered McComsey, who faces up to 15 years in prison, a deal to plead guilty to a single charge of manslaughter for a reduced sentence of 1 to 3 years.

McComsey turned it down, but Kortright said Wednesday the deal is still on the table.

"Negotiations are ongoing," Kortright said. "You never know what might happen."

McComsey is in Washington County Jail in lieu of $ 5,000 bail.

Trial had been scheduled for the first or second week of December, but McKeighan said Wednesday he is concerned the trial would conflict with the Christmas holiday and set a new trial date of Jan. 14.

McKeighan dealt a blow to the prosecution's case last week when he dropped two charges of first-degree reckless endangerment against McComsey for lack of proper evidence.

Killed in the blast were Palmer; her son, Lawrence Berg Jr., 19; her granddaughter, 2-month-old Niah Durham; the baby's father, Darrell Durham, 20; McComsey's nephew Robert Sanford, 16; and family friend Clarissa Lyn Porlier, 19.

bgardinier@timesunion.com • 518-454-5696 • @BobGardinier

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Arthur Shawcross - The Genesee River Killer

DISCLAIMER! I DO NOT OWN THIS! Crimes that shook the world: Serial Killers - Arthur Shawcross Arthur Shawcross was an American serial killer, known as The Genesee River Killer, in Rochester, New York. He was paroled for manslaughter in 1987, and a year later he started killing again. From March 1988 to December 1989 he murdered at least twelve women. Shawcross was sentenced to life imprisonment, and he died in 2008.

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