An appelate court says it won't hear the case of a man who shot a Mercer County teenager more than a decade ago in a case of mistaken identity.

33-year-old Ronald Fuller is serving a life prison sentence for the May 1999 shotgun murder of 13-year-old Jeremy Farrand of Sharon.  In papers filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, Fuller claimed that his Venango County attorney did not object to jurors being showed photos of the victim, the prosecution's failure to argue the possibility of an accomplice, and perjured testimony. 

Fuller filed the paperwork without an attorney after being denied a request to have one appointed for him.  The court said that Fuller has not proven he was denied a civil right.

Fuller shot Farrand as he was watching TV at a friend's house on Prindle Street in Sharon when Fuller burst in with a sawed-off shotgun, thinking that Farrand was cooperating with investigators in an unrelated robbery case.  Police arrested him after receiving reports of his bragging about the incident afterwards.

New @ 11:57AM...KAH