A Monroe County man sentenced to death for emptying his .357-caliber Glock semiautomatic pistol into his girlfriend as she held their toddler, killing both, will be allowed to again pursue an appeal of his 2012 conviction.

Michael J. Parrish had challenged a Sept. 22, 2020, Monroe County Court denial of his post conviction appeal to the state Supreme Court.

A panel of justices on Thursday narrowly agreed to return the appeal to county court.

In his two-pronged appeal to the state Supreme Court, Eastern District, filed on Sept. 14, 2021, Parrish made numerous claims of error, including that his trial lawyer was ineffective because he failed to consult with him about his rights under the Post Conviction Relief Act or file an appeal, and that the lawyer handling his subsequent PCRA appeal failed to present any evidence or legal argument to substantiate the ineffectiveness of this trial lawyer.

The Supreme Court justices returned the case to county court so the PCRA court could consider evidence and legal arguments in order to issue a decision on the merits of Parrish’s failure to consult claim.

“Parrish is entitled to a remand to present evidence and argument to substantiate his claim that he is entitled to reinstatement of his direct appeal rights. Upon the PCRA court’s grant or denial of this relief, if either Parrish or the Commonwealth appeal that determination, the PCRA court should file a supplemental opinion to address that decision. Parrish’s ineffectiveness claims raised in the appeal from the PCRA court’s denial of his previously-filed PCRA petitions will then be considered,” Supreme Court Justice Christine Donohue wrote in her opinion.

Donohue considered the case with Chief Justice Max Baer and justices Debra Todd, Kevin M. Dougherty, David N. Wecht, Sallie Updyke Mundy, and P. Kevin Brobson.

Dougherty, Mundy and Brobson dissented.

Parrish, 36, of Effort, was convicted of the killings in 2012, and sentenced to death by then Monroe County President Judge Margherita Patti Worthington.

According to court documents, Parrish shot to death his girlfriend, Victoria Adams, and his 19-month-old son, Sidney Parrish, as Adams was holding the toddler in their Effort apartment on July 6, 2009.

Sidney had recently had a heart transplant.

He said he believed Adams was cheating on him, and was angry that she wasn’t home to give their son his medications, which he didn’t know how to administer.

When she arrived home that night after not answering his phone calls, they argued, and she picked up Sidney to take him away with her. That’s when he shot them.

Parrish fled to New Hampshire, where he was arrested and confessed to the killings.

Testimony at his trial revealed that Parrish, a former Monroe County corrections officer, grew up with a violent alcoholic father and was obsessed with Nazism.