A man sentenced to life in prison after killing his grandmother in 2022 is asking the court for a lighter sentence.

A PCRA hearing in the case of Justin K. Moore is scheduled to be held Friday in front of Judge Maureen Skerda. A PCRA hearing in Pennsylvania is a request for relief from a criminal conviction under the state’s Post Conviction Relief Act. It’s a process where defendants can challenge their convictions or sentences after the direct appeal process is exhausted. Moore is currently serving his sentence at the state prison in Houtzdale and will appear before Skerda via video.

Moore pleaded guilty to killing his grandmother, Kelly D. Wadsworth, by hitting her several times in the head with a hammer. According to the affidavit, Moore told police he placed her body in a blue recycling bin, put the bin back beside the house where he found it, then took her car and drove away.

Moore began asking for post-conviction collateral relief with a self-written petition in April 2024. A new attorney was appointed a few days later through the Warren County Public Defender’s Office. PCRA hearings have been scheduled on the petition since June 2024 and have been continued four times since then. Friday’s hearing is an evidentiary hearing that was continued from June 2025. In the months since Moore filed the PCRA request, there have been motions for discovery and documentation has been exchanged between the District Attorney’s office and county Public Defender’s office that includes transcripts of hearings held before sentencing.

A competency evaluation before sentencing found Moore competent to stand trial. He pleaded “guilty but mentally ill” which required a separate hearing before sentencing. Dr. Curtis Mayernik, a forensic psychiatrist, testified prior to the 2023 sentencing on the “guilty but mentally ill plea.” He said that he met with Moore twice and produced a report dated in October 2022. He listed several diagnoses for Moore – disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, PTSD, ADD, a marijuana use disorder and borderline personality disorder. Mayernik testified that Moore’s behavior has been “very alarming” and that the state Department of Corrections has one institution – SCI Waymart – with a treatment program for serious mental disorders.

Moore detailed some of his mental health diagnoses during court proceedings, listing, among others, hallucinations, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and borderline personality disorder. District Attorney Rob Greene said during 2023 court proceedings the sentence for first-degree murder is mandatory life in prison without parole. Greene said he had talked with the family and “there is no just outcome of this case.”

Moore said in court he understands that he will spend the rest of his life “in the prison system” but believed he would be admitted to a psychiatric hospital.