For the third time, the state Superior Court has rejected an appeal by a Hazleton man of his guilty plea and state prison sentence for robbing stores in 2009 in Port Carbon and Pottsville.
In a six-page opinion filed Tuesday, the panel ruled William J. Tierno, 52, filed his latest appeal too late, leaving it with no jurisdiction to consider it.
“Tierno’s petition is patently untimely,” Judge Paula F. Ott wrote in the panel’s opinion.
As a result, Tierno must serve the sentence of 12 to 24 years in a state correctional institution that county Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin imposed on Aug. 30, 2010. Tierno is serving that sentence, plus a consecutive one from Philadelphia of 8 3/4 to 24 years, at SCI/Greene.
Tierno pleaded guilty on Aug. 30, 2010, to two counts each of robbery, conspiracy and theft, and one each of receiving stolen property and terroristic threats. Prosecutors dropped an additional robbery charge.
In one case, Port Carbon police charged Tierno with robbing the Turkey Hill Minit Mart at 216 Pike St. in the borough on April 9, 2009.
In the other case, Pottsville police charged Tierno with robbing the Family Dollar at 1013 W. Market St. in the city on April 6, 2009.
Ott wrote in the panel’s opinion that Tierno had until Jan. 30, 2013, to file a timely petition under the state Post Conviction Relief Act. However, he did not file the petition in question until Feb. 23, 2015, she noted.
Judge Jacqueline O. Shogan and Senior Judge Eugene B. Strassburger III, the other panel members, joined in Ott’s opinion.
There are three exceptions to the timeliness requirement, but none applies to Tierno’s case, according to Ott.
Furthermore, the county court already had determined that the issue Tierno was trying to raise in his latest petition had been litigated, Ott wrote.
Tierno’s earlier appeals had been rejected by the Superior Court in 2011 and 2014.