Man pleads in 1992 killing

After more than two decades of appeals, reversals and a long stint on death row, a Schuylkill County man on Thursday pleaded no contest to the 1992 murder of a romantic rival.

Ronald G. Champney, 67, admitted prosecutors have sufficient evidence to convict him in the June 4, 1992, killing of Roy Bensinger, 37, of North Manheim Township.

Prosecutors dropped charges of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, burglary, criminal trespass, theft and receiving stolen property.

Champney pleaded to third-degree murder and possessing instruments of crime.

Schuylkill County President Judge William E. Baldwin sentenced him to 10-20 years in state prison.

A jury in November 1999 convicted Champney of killing Bensinger with a single shotgun blast 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 the ex-husband of Bensinger’s widow, Beth E. Shirey.

Champney said she had paid $25,000 for the killing. A jury on Dec. 1, 2000, convicted Shirey of criminal homicide.

Shirey, who turned 65 on Friday, is serving a life sentence.

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.