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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Even though Melissa Scholl has yet to be sentenced after a jury last week found her guilty of attempting to kill her two children with car exhaust fumes, her attorney wants to argue for a new trial due to alleged judicial errors.</p><p>Defense attorney Larry Kansky has filed an application to argue for extraordinary relief, listing what he said were numerous missteps by Luzerne County Judge David Lupas that denied Scholl a fair retrial. The first trial in June ended in a hung jury.</p><p>But prosecutors argued Kansky hasn&#8217;t shown the need for the relief he&#8217;s asking for and that it&#8217;s too early.</p><p>A jury Friday rejected the defense&#8217;s case that Scholl, no longer able to raise her children without the help of her husband, was making a desperate cry for help nearly two years ago. That&#8217;s when she drove her car with her 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter buckled in the back seat to a school bus lot across the street from her house on Blackman Street in Wilkes-Barre Township and ran a garden hose from the tailpipe into the closed driver&#8217;s-side front window.</p><p>According to testimony, the car wasn&#8217;t running when a bus driver pulled out the hose and asked Scholl for the keys.</p><p>The jury returned a guilty verdict on two counts of attempted homicide, agreeing prosecutors proved their case that Scholl, 34, wanted to kill herself and her children Julian and Vera the night of Dec. 9, 2015. Scholl remains jailed and faces 13 to 26 years in prison.</p><p>Kansky&#8217;s filing focused on text messages he said police collected from Scholl&#8217;s cell phone without a search warrant; the alleged perjury of a county detective at a preliminary hearing; and the judge&#8217;s failure to instruct the jury on the definition of intent to kill.</p><p>&#8220;When a court does not give such an instruction, it cannot be determined if it was a harmless error and the defendant is entitled to a new trial,&#8221; Kansky said.</p><p>Prosecutors Sam Sanguedolce and Angela Sperrazza, along with District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, responded that the proper time for Kansky to raise the issues is after sentencing. They also say Kansky &#8220;fails to set forth any extraordinary circumstance whatsoever.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Scholl </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_Scholl.cropped-8.jpg</photo0><caption0>Scholl </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Attorneys argue if alleged judicial error denied Scholl a fair trial