At the end of a day of anguished and riveting testimony into a 14-year-old's mysterious death involving a state legislator's handgun, the man who will decide whether to recommend criminal charges against anyone stunned the courtroom by declaring he did not believe what state Sen. Robert Regola III said under oath.

"I did not find the testimony of Senator Regola or his brother at all credible, and I might be able to draw inferences from that," said Thomas J. Farrell, the hearing examiner.

That sharp statement followed conflicting testimony that exposed inconsistencies in what Mr. Regola, his son and his brother said regarding the handgun that is at the heart of the investigation in the death of Louis Farrell, a boy the senator said was like a son to him.

Mr. Farrell, a former federal prosecutor, said he would recommend to Westmoreland County authorities within two weeks whether 14-year-old Louis killed himself or died by homicide or accident, and if anyone is culpable. His impression after hearing 19 witnesses over two days was that the evidence "strongly suggests a suicide," something the Farrell family has denied.

However, Mr. Farrell cautioned, even if it were ruled that Louis took his own life, that would not prevent prosecutors from filing charges of involuntary manslaughter or reckless conduct regarding the stewardship of Mr. Regola's gun, or aiding and abetting a suicide.

Mr. Farrell is not related to the family of the deceased.

Attorneys for Mr. Regola and his son, Robert "Bobby" Regola IV, expressed surprise and disappointment at Mr. Farrell's comments. The senator testified for 90 minutes, while his son -- the first witness called yesterday -- invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination on the advice of his attorney, Duke George.

"I'm rather shocked by the comments that were made," said Mr. Regola's attorney, Charles J. Porter Jr., adding that he could not envision any testimony or evidence giving rise to criminal charges. Asked it had been a mistake to allow the senator to take the stand, Mr. Porter replied, "Apparently it was. We came here with the idea of cooperating and being candid and for whatever reason, it wasn't well received."

Mr. Farrell's forthright statement capped hours of testimony -- some heart-wrenching and agonizing to hear -- by two fathers about their sons and the still murky events of last summer.

Louis' father, J. Douglas Farrell, found his son dead around 8:30 a.m. on July 22 in the woods behind his house.

The teenager had a gunshot wound of the head, and Mr. Regola's 9 mm handgun was next to him.

State police have been unable to determine how the gun got from the Regola household to the woods and whether Louis shot himself.

The inquest did not bring that information to light. It did, however, give rise to conflicting statements by Mr. Regola about where the gun was stored in the house.

The senator testified that the handgun found next to Louis was never stored at any time in his son's bedroom, despite testimony Thursday from Louis' best friend that both boys had seen the gun in Bobby's bedroom within the past year or so. Mr. Regola did say that his son kept a replica 9 mm pellet gun.

A state police trooper testified yesterday, however, that Mr. Regola told him he transferred the real firearm from his son's room to his own early last summer.

Trooper Jarred Slater said that on the morning Louis Farrell was found, he asked Mr. Regola where he kept his 9 mm gun.

Trooper Slater said Mr. Regola acknowledged that he used to keep the pistol in his son's bedroom, but that he moved it because of concerns about possible vagrants in the woods near the house.

On July 21, Bobby Regola returned home late in the evening after a day at an amusement park with his girlfriend. Louis had been dog-sitting for the Regolas that day, having been given a key to the house. When Bobby returned home, according to testimony by his girlfriend and relatives, he found a door ajar and the refrigerator door opened and became concerned.

Bobby Regola called his father, who was at a function in Harrisburg, and told him what had happened and that a gun was missing. The senator said he would send his brother, Ronald, to the house.

Ronald Regola testified he searched the house top to bottom, found nothing amiss, and made sure all the doors and windows were secured. He said he was not aware that a handgun was missing until he went upstairs to look around, and his nephew told him that a gun was missing from his parents' bedroom.

After Ronald Regola's testimony ended, Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck called forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, who conducted the autopsy on Louis. But Mr. Farrell intervened, specifically requesting that the senator take the stand next.

Both Mr. Peck and Mr. Farrell hammered away at the Regola brothers for an answer to why they did not call police after learning that a handgun was missing. The Regolas both said they believed their sister and her husband had probably stopped by the house and taken their gun to go target shooting, although the senator admitted that had never happened before.

Louis' father provided the most emotional testimony of the day as he spoke glowingly of his son and tearfully about discovering Louis on an overcast, drizzly morning. He painted a horrific scene of finding Louis sprawled on his back, and later of his wife, Lauren, swatting flies away from the body while awaiting paramedics.

"All I could see was his big, brown eyes and I saw blood on his face, and when I grabbed him, I picked him up, and I couldn't pick him up any higher, and I dropped to my knees," he said.

Douglas Farrell said in two brief conversations with Bobby that morning he never mentioned his son was dead.

Bobby, however, told his father just the opposite, that Douglas Farrell told him Louis was dead, the senator testified.

Douglas Farrell, who broke down several times during his testimony, said he could think of nothing that would make his son suicidal.

Dr. Wecht, the former Allegheny County coroner, said the location and type of wound was consistent with a suicide, though he could not definitively conclude that.

Jon Perry, the Farrell family's attorney who complained of a "public whitewashing" based on the first day of the inquest, said yesterday evening he was satisfied with how the proceedings wrapped up.

He said he thought Mr. Regola should be charged with criminal negligence for not calling police upon learning that the gun was missing while Louis was still alive.

First Published: February 24, 2007, 5:00 a.m.