11/16/09

BOISE, Idaho (AP) _ The Idaho Court of Appeals has rejected a
request for post-conviction relief from a man convicted of killing
his apartment manager with a pulaski.

Gerald Barcella was convicted of the 1995 murder of Bill Smith,
the manager of Coeur d'Alene's Harmony House apartments.
Prosecutors said Smith was trying to evict Barcella, and Barcella
killed him with a pulaski _ a tool with an ax on one side of the
head and a mattock on the other.

In his appeal, Barcella said his conviction and life sentence
were unconstitutional and that he was the victim of prosecutorial
misconduct and ineffective defense attorneys. But the Idaho Court
of Appeals upheld a lower court's decision rejecting those claims,
saying he failed to show he suffered any prejudice from any
ineffective assistance of counsel.

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