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Tuesday, July 08, 2003

By Virginia Kopas Joe, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A Hempfield High School student told a jury yesterday that just hours after the bludgeoning death of Adam Bishop, his brother Ian, then 14, told her that he hit Adam on the head "many times with a hammer and a club" because "he hated his brother" and because "his brother was a faggot."

Heather Exton also said that Ian Bishop told her on the night of April 19, 2002, that he had a "plan to kill his whole family."

Authorities said Exton, 17, of Greensburg, was in a car filled with teenagers, including Ian Bishop, just hours after the brutal killing of his 18-year-old brother in the Bishops' comfortable home near the Hempfield village of Bovard.

Exton, sobbing, told a hushed courtroom yesterday that Ian Bishop told her that after he hit Adam he "put him in the bathtub" and left him with "a large hole in his head."

Exton also testified that Ian Bishop said he was upset that his parents didn't like his girlfriend. She said that Ian "asked Rob to help him, but he didn't."

Robert Laskowski is the second teenager charged in the crime. He will be tried at a later date, although his name kept popping up in critical testimony yesterday.

Day two provided dramatic testimony as the commonwealth tries to prove that the murder of Adam Bishop, a gifted musician and student, was planned and executed by his younger brother, who later that day bragged about it.

The prosecution, led by Westmoreland County Assistant District Attorney Pat Noonan, is seeking a first-degree murder conviction, which calls for life in prison without parole.

The defense, led by Greensburg attorney Tom Ceraso, claims Bishop is not guilty and that the fatal blows were struck by someone else.

State Trooper Jason Swope of the Greensburg barracks then identified other evidence that he took from the Bishop home: Ian's diary, a red notebook and a letter Swope said he found in Bishop's school backpack.

Prosecutors have not said what was in the notebook and letter.

Ceraso questioned why Swope, a trooper for three years, did not wear gloves and took only the letter from the backpack, which contained other items.

The trial will continue today in the courtroom of Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Debra A. Pezze, with more medical and forensic testimony expected.