STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Jury selection begins Monday in eastern Pennsylvania in the death penalty trial of a man charged with having killed an elderly former teacher whose body was found in South Carolina two years ago.
Thirty-three-year-old Rico Herbert of Montrose is charged in Monroe County in the death of 87-year-old Joseph DeVivo of Stroud Township. Prosecutors allege that he killed the victim in February 2012 and drove off with the body in the trunk. Herbert was arrested in North Carolina and DeVivo’s body was later found in South Carolina.
Defense attorney Thomas Sundmaker has told the Pocono Record that someone else killed the victim and then gave his client the car in exchange for drugs.
DeVivo’s family in a statement called the victim “a good guy” who loved teaching young people.
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