A Superior Court panel of judges has denied the appeal of a Palmerton man serving up to 94 years in prison for his part in the baseball bat murder of a Hazleton man in September 2009.

Shane D. Roof, 26, had pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, robbery and conspiracy in the beating death of 21-year-old Anthony Locasio.Roof was one of four men charged in Locasio's death.Roof was sentenced by Schuylkill County Judge Charles Miller on Nov. 5, 2010, to 47 to 94 years on all of the charges. He filed the Post Conviction Relief Act appeal on Aug. 7, 2012, after filing other, unsuccessful appeals.Roof contended that his lawyer was ineffective because he failed to file a motion to reconsider Roof's sentence in light of lesser sentences imposed on the other three men.Roof also argued that his guilty plea was unlawfully induced by his lawyer's failure to provide and discuss evidence against him and properly advise him of his potential sentences, and that the commonwealth court abused its discretion in imposing disparate sentences between him and his co-conspirators.The three judges, in an eight-page opinion filed June 11, found his arguments without merit.On the claim that his lawyer failed to file a motion for reconsideration of his sentence, the judges wrote that his argument failed because it met only one of the three prongs of the test to prove a lawyer was ineffective.On the claim that his plea was unlawfully induced, the judges wrote that testimony at the PCRA hearing proved otherwise.Testimony included that of then-District Attorney James Goodman, who said he met with Roof and his lawyer about the plea negotiation and "went over the evidence pretty extensively."Roof's lawyer, public defender Kent Watkins, testified he was aware of Roof's inability to read well, and so read to him "anything that dealt with the case."Roof also claimed Watkins misled him to believe he would be subject to the death penalty if he went to trial.Testimony at the PCRA hearing also put that to rest, the judges wrote. Goodman testified that Roof was not facing the death penalty when he pleaded because Goodman's office had not filed a notice of aggravating factors, required to merit the death penalty, when he was arraigned.Watkins also testified he told Roof he would face a life sentence, not the death penalty.As to the court abusing its discretion in sentencing, the judges wrote that because the claim was not couched in terms of his lawyer's effectiveness, it was not eligible for consideration under the relief act.According to the decision, Roof, along with Curtis Todd Foose and Jeffery Gombert, both of Hazleton, and Andrew Tutko of McAdoo, lured Locasio on Sept. 15, 2009, to the woods off Old Mill Road near Barnesville under the pretext of a drug deal, stripped him of his clothes and robbed him.Then, they beat him to death with baseball bats.Foose, who also pleaded guilty, was also sentenced to 47-95 years. Gombert and Tutko, who both cooperated with police from the start, also pleaded. They were sentenced on Nov. 18, 2010, Gombert to 20 to 40 years and Tutko to 25 to 50 years.