Pennsylvania Daybook

Underground fires, toxins in unfunded cleanup of old mines

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Trial has begun in western Pennsylvania for a man charged in a 2013 double homicide in suburban Pittsburgh. Thirty-year-old Michael Robinson is charged in Allegheny County in the May 2013 shooting deaths of 29-year-old Lawrence Short and 18-year-old Tyrone Coleman in Duquesne. Prosecutors say a black bandanna found at the scene links the defendant to the slayings. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (http://bit.ly/2jI0wkT ) reports that a woman testified Friday that she saw Robinson shoot the victims in front of her house. Defense attorney Ken Haber challenged the DNA evidence and the account of the witness. He called his client "a working guy" and "a family guy" who was "hard-working, loving, peaceful and law-abiding." Prosecutors originally said they would seek capital punishment in the case but later dropped the idea. ___ Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, http://www.post-gazette.com

Trial opens in 2013 double slaying in suburban Pittsburgh