LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) – A Lancaster County judge rejected the appeal of a man serving decades in prison for the shooting of a college student after prison emails revealed another man’s confession was a ploy arranged by the two inmates, authorities said.
Kalvin McCullough is serving 38 to 76 years in prison for shooting 18-year-old Joseph Rodgers, a Thaddeus Stevens College student, near the campus in 2003. Rodgers, a two-sport athlete from Bensalem, was left paralyzed.
McCullough was convicted of four counts of attempted homicide and related charges. In his appeal, he presented a confession affidavit from Lamar Clark in which Clark claimed he shot Rodgers.
The district attorney’s office said McCullough and Clark, friends since childhood, mistakenly believed that if the attempted murder charge fell on Clark, the statute of limitations would have expired and neither man could be sentenced for the crime.
Lancaster County Judge Jeffery Wright rejected McCullough’s request, finding his claim “at worst, may amount to perjury.”
Clark is serving 38.5 to 87 years for opening fire inside a Lancaster bar in 2014, killing a man and injuring others.
