Appellate Court Upholds Joseph Belstadt’s Murder Conviction in 1993 Killing of Mandy Steingasser

Niagara Action
5 minutes ago
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Nearly thirty years after the killing of 17-year-old Mandy Steingasser, a state appellate court has affirmed the conviction of Joseph Belstadt, the North Tonawanda man found guilty in one of Niagara County’s longest-running homicide investigations. A five-judge panel of the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, Fourth Department, issued a unanimous decision Friday rejecting Belstadt’s appeal and upholding his conviction for second-degree murder.

The ruling was delivered less than a month after oral arguments. Belstadt, now 50 and serving 25 years to life at Attica Correctional Facility, claimed prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence and that his constitutional rights had been violated. The appellate panel rejected each of those claims and left his conviction and sentence unchanged. He will not be eligible for parole until November 2046. Belstadt has consistently insisted he is innocent.

Steingasser disappeared early on September 19th, 1993, after spending the night with friends in North Tonawanda. Witnesses reported seeing her get into Belstadt’s black Pontiac 6000 near Oliver Street and Fifth Avenue shortly before she vanished.

Her disappearance triggered a massive search effort and media coverage. More than a month later, on October 25th, 1993, her body was found by fishermen in a ravine near Myers Lake. Investigators later determined she had been strangled and a bra strap was discovered tied around her neck.

For decades, the case remained unsolved but active. Police identified Belstadt as a person of interest early in the investigation but lacked enough evidence to charge him. In the years that followed, the case was revisited multiple times, including in the late 2010s as forensic technology advanced. Additional testing and reinvestigation eventually led to Belstadt’s indictment in 2018 and his trial in 2022 where jurors convicted him of second-degree murder. He was represented by attorney Michele Bergevin who suffered the most high-profile loss of her career.

The appellate court’s decision, which was less than four pages, addressed Belstadt’s argument that the verdict was unsupported by the evidence. The judges rejected that point, writing, “We conclude [that] the evidence is legally sufficient to support the conviction of murder in the second-degree.” They added, “After viewing the evidence in light of the elements of the crime as charged to the jury, the verdict is not against the weight of the evidence.”

Belstadt’s lawyers also argued that the trial judge improperly allowed testimony from a forensic pathologist who did not conduct the original 1993 autopsy. The appellate judges upheld the decision, noting that “an expert may offer opinions related to the cause and manner of death if the expert 'has used their independent analysis of the primary data' including autopsy photographs, video recordings and anatomical measurements.”

Another major issue raised by the defense was the nearly quarter-century delay between the crime and charges. Belstadt’s attorney on appeal, Thomas Eoannou, argued during oral arguments that the delay violated his client’s constitutional right to a speedy trial.

Prosecutors countered that the delay was justified and that the investigation never stopped. Niagara County District Attorney Brian Seaman told the court, “We always had an assistant district attorney and a detective assigned to work on this.” He added that investigators worked continuously through each evolution of forensic science.

The appellate judges sided with prosecutors. Although they agreed that the delay may have caused “some degree of prejudice” to Belstadt, the state demonstrated good cause for the time it took to file charges.

If Belstadt chooses to pursue further appeals, it would be to petition the New York Court of Appeals.