Decision In On If Family of Murdered Valley Teen Can View Records

A decision was made on Wednesday, May 9th by the Freedom of Information Commission whether the family of a Valley teenager who was murdered more than 30 years ago is entitled to see the prison records of her convicted killer.

And that decision was made in favor of Joyce Stochmal’s family.

The hearing officer for the state Freedom of Information Commission had issued a preliminary ruling that the Stochmal family is entitled to review the prison records, with some restrictions, of David Weinberg.

On Wednesday the full FOI backed the hearing officer’s ruling.

That ruling came after a long effort by the Stochmal family - headed by Joyce Stochmal's sister, Marianne Stochmal Heffernan, to see Weinberg's prison records.

Weinberg's lawyer had appealed the hearing officer's decision.

Heffernan has been asking the FOI, and hearing officer Valicia Harmon, for information on the prison records of David Weinberg, who was recently released after serving 26 years for the killing in 1984 of 19-year-old Joyce Stochmal, Heffernan's sister.

She was abducted, beaten and stabbed before her body was disposed of in a lake in Newtown.