http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/20...6273809400.txt

Two of the surviving Johnston bothers have filed separate but identical motions asking for a new trial in their notorious murder cases, citing information included in a book recently published about their gang that they say includes evidence that was kept from them at trial.

David Johnston and Norman Johnston, each serving four consecutive life sentences for murder, said the information was included in the book "Jailing The Johnston Gang," written by former Daily Local News reporter and editor Bruce Mowday.

The two brothers, filing the motions for a new trial by themselves last month, pointed to four bits of information they said their attorneys had not been privy to at the time of their 1980 trial and that could have proved exculpatory. The alleged evidence includes a confession by one of the witnesses against them to the murder of Robin Miller, the girlfriend of their nephew, Bruce Johnston Jr.; "threatening" letters sent to the lead investigator and one of the prosecutors in the case by two witnesses; and a photo of one witness who they said was an admitted alcoholic, with a bottle of rye whiskey given him by prosecution authorities during the pair's trial.

Judge Howard F. Riley Jr. has tentatively set a hearing on the brother's allegations for September. The judge named two court-appointed attorneys to review the accusations before going forward.

Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Casenta, who handles appeals for the D.A.'s office, scoffed at the brothers' motions when asked about them on Monday.

"Their allegations are meritless, and we are sure they will be dismissed in due time," he said.

Casenta declined to address the Johnstons' accusations directly, saying only there is "nothing undiscovered about any of the evidence they suggest."

William Lamb, the former county district attorney who prosecuted the brothers' cases, along with the separate trial of gang leader Bruce Johnston Jr., said he had seen the petitions, discussed the matter with Casenta and members of his original prosecution team, and found the allegations without substance.

"(Casenta) said he believes, and I concur, that he doesn't see any problem with them," Lamb, a West Chester attorney and former state Supreme Court justice, said in a brief interview Monday. He said he also spoke with Delores Troiani, his assistant during the trial, and said they would be "happy to help" Casenta with the appeal.

"We don't see any problem with it," Lamb said. "But you have to deal with it."

The motions, technically post-conviction appeals, state the brothers read Mowday's book in April, a month after it was published and offered for sale on Amazon.com The brothers say that in his book, Mowday disclosed four things that they had not been aware of at their trial.

* That state witness Leslie Dale had confessed to the 1977 murder of Miller -- the death that set in motion Bruce Johnston Jr.'s eventual cooperation with authorities and the subsequent murders of members of the so-called "Kiddie Gang."

* That Dale also wrote letters to the prosecution threatening to change his testimony against the brothers unless "certain things" were done for him.

* That prosecution witness Richard "Ricky" Mitchell had also sent letters to the prosecution warning him that he would change his testimony. The petitions quote him in the book as saying, "I don't think you will like what I am going to say in the courtroom, and everything I say is true."

* Finally, they point to the photo of Mitchell with a bottle of whiskey as evidence that the prosecution had plied him with liquor to help bolster his testimony.

Dale and Mitchell were associated with the Johnston Gang, and Dale was sentenced to life in prison for his participation in the murder of informant Gary Wayne Crouch.

The brothers' petition alleged that if the defense had known the information at the time, it could have changed the outcome of the trial.

In 1980, David Johnston and Norman Johnston were convicted of four counts of first-degree murder and other offenses for the death of James Johnston, Wayne Sampson, Jimmy Sampson and Duane Lincoln. They have exhausted their state and federal appeals.

Mowday, who covered the investigation into the Johnstons and the subsequent trials of each of the brothers, said he had been told of the petition and also did not believe that it would lead to a new trial.

"From what I've heard, everything in the book was discovered at (the original trial)," Mowday said Monday. He said the book contained information mostly about the case police were able to put together against the gang members rather than the trial itself.

"I don't think anything in the book shows that they were wrongfully convicted. I'm not aware of anything that would have changed the outcome of the trial," he said.

The Johnston Brothers ran a multimillion dollar burglary ring in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware in the 1960s and 1970s. David Johnston is serving his sentence at the state correctional facility in Forest while Norman Johnson is serving his at SCI Greene.

In 1999, Norman escaped from prison and spent 20 days hiding from police in southern Chester County. He was captured after a Pennsbury couple spotted him in their back yard and called police.

Bruce Johnston Sr., convicted of six murders, died in prison in 2002.

Mowday said his book is expected to go into its second printing later this year. He will appear to discuss the case on the Pennsylvania Cable Network at 9 p.m. Sunday.