Defense attorneys are seeking copies of more than 1,400 documents from the FBI in an appeal for a man on death row for killing New Kensington police Officer Brian Shaw.
A response to a public records request filed by attorneys representing Rahmael Holt, 37, of Harrison indicated it would take several years for the FBI to release them, said Michael Gonzales, an attorney with the Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s capital habeas corpus unit. The request was filed under the Freedom of Information Act.
Gonzales on Thursday asked Westmoreland County Judge Timothy Krieger for a subpoena to help speed the process.
“We believe the trial counsel should have requested this stuff pretrial,” Gonzales argued.
Holt is appealing his December 2019 conviction. He was found guilty of first-degree murder and two other offenses in connection with the November 2017 fatal shooting of Shaw, 25. Jurors later sentenced him to death.
Prosecutors said Shaw chased Holt as he fled from a car after a traffic stop on Leishman Avenue in New Kensington. The officer was shot three times during the pursuit. Holt was arrested days later after an extensive manhunt involving numerous police agencies, including the FBI.
About 40 pages of FBI documents were provided by prosecutors to the defense in preparation for the 2019 trial, which is everything that was available to them, Assistant District Attorney James Lazar said. He argued there is no way to know if any of the 1,400 documents are relevant to the case.
“What they’re asking for is a court-authorized fishing expedition,” Lazar said.
Plus, investigative documents typically aren’t granted under public records requests, he said.
Gonzales said he believes he eventually will get the documents through the FOIA request, but the appeal likely will have long been decided by then. Without getting his hands on them, he said, it’s impossible to know whether there would be any claims Holt could make in his appeal.
“It’s not an option to continue this hearing long enough to get those documents,” Krieger said.
Attorneys were ordered to file briefs supporting their arguments, and Krieger said he will make a decision later. He denied a defense motion to get cellphone extraction records in the case but said the matter could be refiled.
Gonzales said his expert wants the original extraction records from seven cellphones that were introduced at trial. Prosecutors supplied the defense an expert report of the contents of those cellphones before trial. Krieger suggested attorneys try to work the matter out with their experts.
Holt is being held in a state prison in Somerset County. He is one of 94 inmates on death row, according to statistics from the state Department of Corrections. Five inmates convicted in Westmoreland County, including Holt, are on death row.
A state moratorium on executions has been in place for 10 years. The last execution in Pennsylvania was in 1999, according to state data.
