A prison inmate serving decades for shooting a Stevens College student – paralyzing the teenager – will not get a new trial or relief from his sentence, an appellate court recently ruled.

The Pennsylvania Superior Court found Kalvin McCullough’s appeal was filed too late, and that McCullough’s lifelong friend’s confession to the shooting is “incredible.”

McCullough, now 37, filed the request for relief with a signed affidavit from Lamar Clark with Clark claiming he committed the crime for which McCullough was convicted.

McCullough is serving a 38-to-76-year sentence for attempted homicide of the student (and three other people) in 2003.

Clark is serving 38½ to 87 years for opening fire inside a Lancaster city bar in 2014, killing a man.

A Lancaster County Judge previously denied McCullough’s request, finding it untimely and that Clark’s statement “has no iota of credibility.”

The state appellate court’s opinion from Sept. 2 concurs with those findings.

McCullough and Clark believed – mistakenly – that if the attempted murder charge fell on Clark the statute of limitations would have expired by now and neither man could be sentenced for the crime, according to prosecutors.

Assistant District Attorney Gregory Seiders presented evidence at a previous hearing that McCullough and Clark concocted the plan via communication through the prison email system.

The men, and intermediaries, referred to a “crazy loop hole” that could result in relief, according to court filings.

McCullough was convicted of four counts of attempted homicide and related charges. McCullough opened fire on a group that included 18-year-old Joseph Rodgers, a two-sport athlete from Bensalem.

Lancaster County Chief Detective Kent Switzer filed charges in the case when he was working as a Lancaster city police detective.

MEDIA CONTACT: Brett A. Hambright, 717-295-2041; bhambright@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @BrettHambright