Trial date set for suspect in Franklin Regional stabbings

GREENSBURG, Pa. — A judge has determined when a teen will stand trial on charges that he stabbed 20 fellow students and a security guard at his western Pennsylvania school.

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck met with the defense attorney for 18-year-old Alex Hribal before Common Pleas Judge Christopher Feliciani on Monday.

The judge last week refused to let Hribal appeal to the state Superior Court to overturn the judge's ruling that Hribal should stand trial as an adult.

Defense attorney Patrick Thomassey acknowledges Hribal committed the crimes at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville in April 2014 when he was 16. That's why he wanted the case in juvenile court, where Hribal would face no sanctions after turning 21.

Hribal now faces decades in prison if convicted.

The trial date was set for August 1.

"We moved it... to give both sides time to prepare for trial, to prepare witnesses," defense attorney Pat Thomassey said.

Cox Media Group