Piper, Arlene: 1999
Arlene Piper, age 74, was a victim of murder on July 18, 1999. Christopher Yon entered her home sometime in the early morning through a side window, awaking Ms Piper. He raped her, smothered her with a pillow, and took her car keys to steal her car.
Police questioned Yon periodically for almost a year before arresting him. His mother had told police that he had been missing the night of the murder. At first, he claimed to have gone to Ohio; when his fingerprint was found on the car, he claimed he had been kidnapped by two men. Those two men committed the crime, he claimed, while he begged them to stop. He finally waived the offer of an attorney and confessed. A DNA test was conducted to tie him to the rape. In addition to the confession, police had his fingerprint on the stolen car, which was found two days later covered in brush, just six miles away.
After his preliminary hearing on July 20, 2000, Yon stated that he had suffered the death of a child, and his grandmother, and wanted someone to talk to. He was charged with criminal homicide, rape, criminal trespassing, and burglary.
Yon had the benefit of a psychiatrist, a forensic pathologist, a DNA expert, and a fingerprint expert in addition to his public defender, Kirk Kling. The taxpayers of Blair County paid for these experts. His school records were even looked at.
On August 16, 2002, his defense team made a motion to prohibit the Commonwealth from seeking the death penalty. The defense attorney, Thomas Hooper, argued that the recent Supreme Court decision stating that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment for the mentally retarded was the issue, and that Yon had a low IQ and an inability to function socially. Yon’s records indicated that although he was of below average intelligence, he was not classified as having mental retardation. The motion was denied. On September 16, 2002, Christopher Yon entered a nolo contendere (no contest) plea to criminal homicide and seven other charges to escape the possibility of receiving the death penalty.
Christopher Yon had been charged with theft, criminal conspiracy, and receiving stolen property in 1995; he pled guilty. In 1996 he was, on three separate occasions, charged with criminal conspiracy and criminal mischief; on the third occasion, he was charged with recklessly endangering another person. Following his guilty plea for the murder of Arlene Piper, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the second degree murder and the seven other charges. He is now incarcerated at Mahanoy State Correctional Institution, a medium-security facility in Frackville, PA.
