In a convoluted murder case, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled to allow a defendant’s statements to be used in a retrial of a 1992 homicide case in Schuylkill County.

At issue was whether statements made on May 13 and Oct. 8, 1998, by Ronald G. Champney, now 66, should be allowed at his second trial in the 1992 shooting death of Roy Bensinger, 37, of North Manheim Township.

The Dec. 5 ruling reversing the lower court decision overturned an earlier Superior Court ruling that had upheld the judge’s order to suppress statements.

President Judge William E. Baldwin on April 20, 2015, ruled that the statements Champney made to police on May 13, 1998, should be suppressed because they were made after Champney asked for a lawyer when talking to police on Dec. 23, 1997.

His decision was appealed by Prosecutor Jennifer A. Peterson of the state Office of the Attorney General.

The Superior Court on June 23, 2016, upheld Baldwin’s ruling.

But the Office of the Attorney General asked for a reargument, which resulted in Baldwin’s ruling being overturned.

“We conclude that while Champney invoked his right to counsel on Dec. 23, 1997, there was a sufficient break in custody between then and May 13, 1998, that Champney’s May 13, 1998, statements … his Miranda waiver was valid,” the panel wrote.

Champney was jailed on Oct. 23, 1997, on charges unrelated to Bensinger’s death.

“Between then and Oct. 8, 1998, he had four conversations about the Bensinger case with (now-retired trooper David) Shinski (of the Schuylkill Haven Barracks),” the Superior Court panel wrote.

Shinski read Champney his Miranda rights while en route to a hearing on the unrelated charges, and again on Dec. 23, 1997, and on Oct. 8, 1998, while being taken to a hearing in the Bensinger case, the panel wrote.

Champney was facing his second trial for the 1992 shooting death of Bensinger when he made the statements to a state trooper on May 13, 1998.

A jury in November 1999 convicted Champney of killing Bensinger with a single shotgun blast on June 4, 1992, as Bensinger stepped out of his pickup in the driveway of his home. They imposed the death penalty the next day.

Prosecutors’ key witness, David Blickley, was Bensinger’s widow’s ex-husband, whom Champney said paid for the killing.

Champney, whose vanity license plate read “1 SHOT,” had bragged that he fired once into Bensinger’s face with a .30-30 Winchester rifle he took from the victim’s gun cabinet, according to police.

He was scheduled to be executed on Nov. 30, 2004, but a federal judge halted his execution.

A Philadelphia group, the Federal Defenders, successfully sought the second trial.

In June 2008, Baldwin ruled that errors made by Champney’s trial lawyer likely led to his death sentence, and ordered a new trial.

The state Supreme Court in 2013 upheld Baldwin’s ruling.

The second trial, on charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and possessing instrument of crime, can now be scheduled now that the Superior Court has resolved the Attorney General’s appeal.

Champney remains confined in state prison in Franklin Township, Greene County.