Criminal charge remanded to OGS

An Oconee magistrate today sent up a criminal charge arising out of a late 2013 homicide case near Westminster. Magistrate Will Derrick ruled probable cause had been found to send the charge of accessory before the fact of a felony against Patrick Grant Covone to the General Sessions Court. Previously, Derrick had dismissed a murder charge against Covone, but the defendant appeared before the magistrate this morning charged with a new offense. Covone is accused as an accessory before the fact of the murder of Richard Alan Marszalek. Investigators believe Marszalek, who suffered blunt force trauma to the head, was killed sometime between December 27 and 29 at 141 W. Spearman Road. The home there burned in a January 11 fire and Marszalek’s body was found in the rubble. Two other men are charged with murder in the case.