Burney
Marshall Burney after he was sentenced at the Luzerne County Courthouse on Aug. 16, 2022.
Ed Lewis | Times Leader File Photo
WILKES-BARRE — A Wilkes-Barre man convicted by a Luzerne County jury of sexually assaulting three girls is seeking a new trial, claiming his trial attorney was ineffective by failing to consult with him during a plea agreement.
Marshall Avery Burney, 41, testified during his Post Conviction Relief hearing before Luzerne County Judge Joseph F. Sklarosky Jr. that he probably would have considered a plea offer, if his trial attorney, former Assistant Public Defender Kendra A. Strobel, had shown him.
“I asked about a plea deal and she (Strobel) said there isn’t one,” Burney testified.
Strobel, who testified via video, said she received a plea offer from the district attorney’s office and presented the offer to Burney.
The plea agreement called for Burney to plea guilty to certain child sexual assault offenses with a sentence of three-to-six years in prison.
Instead, Burney opted for a trial by jury, who convicted him on numerous felony and misdemeanor child sex offenses following a three-day trial before Sklarosky in June 2021. The jury deliberated less than 45 minutes before rendering its verdict.
Sklarosky sentenced Burney to 23-to-46 years in state prison in August 2022.
Burney, through his PCRA appellate attorney, Leonard Gryskewicz Jr., also argued he was wrongly convicted on certain sexual offenses that involved penetration, which contradicted statements from the three girls when questioned by a forensic interviewer at the Luzerne County Children’s Advocacy Center.
The interviews at the Advocacy Center were played to the jury.
Sklarosky allowed Gryskewicz and Assistant District Attorney Carly Levandoski to file legal briefs before he makes a ruling on Burney’s effort for relief.
In April 2023, the Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld Sklarosky’s sentence imposed upon Burney, who claimed at the time several of the convicted offenses should had been made concurrently instead of consecutively.
Burney was designated as a violent sexual predator subject to lifetime registration under the state’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.
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