(TNS) On death row after being convicted of killing two men in 2001, a Kunkletown man is seeking a new trial based on information he says wasn't presented at his 2002 trial.

Manuel Sepulveda, 35, is scheduled for a Post-Conviction Relief Act hearing in April on his motion regarding testimony he says wasn't elicited from a witness who testified against him, said Assistant District Attorney Mark Matthews. Sepulveda's appeal has been remanded from the state Supreme Court back to Monroe County Court, Matthews said.Sepulveda appeared Wednesday in county court with attorney Billy Nolas of the Federal Public Defender's Office, saying he has agreed to let that office continue representing him. He had no comment when reporters asked him for his thoughts on Gov. Tom Wolf's recent moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania.Separate juries convicted Sepulveda in 2002 and Daniel Heleva, 54, in 2004, in the November 26, 2001, murders of New York City drug dealer John Mendez, 19, and Mendez's friend Ricardo Lopez Jr., 20, at Heleva's Polk Township home. Sepulveda got the death penalty, which he is appealing, while Heleva is serving life in prison without parole after being convicted as an accomplice.The murders occurred after Heleva and Mendez had an argument about stolen guns, according to trial witness testimony.Mendez and Lopez were both shot. Lopez was killed.The wounded Mendez tried running to a neighbor's house, only to be dragged back into Heleva's house.Robyn Otto, now 62, the mother of Heleva's two children, who were ages 7 and 5 at the time of the murders, testified at Heleva's trial that she and the children were home that night and that she had been smoking crack cocaine throughout the day. Otto said the wounded Mendez came to her bedroom and told her, "Look, they shot me."As Otto ran to get the children, Mendez was dragged back downstairs, where he was then hacked with a homemade ax and garroted with a bungee cord, according to testimony. Otto was later charged with endangering children's welfare, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time already served in county jail.Sepulveda says Otto knows additional details that never came out at trial, but the Pocono Record was unable Thursday to reach Nolas for comment on what those details are. April 20 is the scheduled date for Sepulveda's PCRA hearing, at which those details may come to light.Distributed by TribuneContent Agency LLC