Today’s Indiana County Court list includes the start of the trial of Simere Alford, the 21-year-old Philadelphia man accused of trying to kill two state troopers last summer as they were returning him to SCI Pine Grove. However, the trial is also listed on tomorrow’s court schedule, so it might not begin today.
Alford is charged with 22 criminal offenses, including two first degree counts of attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer, 17 other felonies, and three misdemeanors. He broke free from his back-seat restraint, reached into the front seat and grabbed the gun of Trooper Jeremy Leasure, who was driving. Leasure grabbed the gun as Alford fired a second shot, which hit Alford in the leg and foot. The vehicle then crashed into a guardrail and Trooper Allison Goswick got out and opened the rear door as Leasure and Alford wrestled. Disarming Alford, Leasure got him out of the vehicle and forced him to the ground. Both troopers and Alford were treated and released at Indiana Regional Medical Center, with Trooper Goswick suffering a broken arm in the crash.
Alford is serving 13 to 40 years in prison for suffocating his sister, whose body was found with a plastic bag over her head in 2017.
The court schedule today also includes a hearing before Judge Mike Clark on a motion by 56-year-old Gary Berkheimer of Gipsy, who is seeking to withdraw his guilty plea in a burglary case. Berkheimer pleaded guilty to felony criminal trespass in March, with no prosecution on charges of felony burglary, and five counts each of misdemeanor theft and receiving stolen property.
Failing the granting of his motion to withdraw, Berkheimer is scheduled to be sentenced on September 21st.
