Killer of Carnegie woman dies in prison

A former Carnegie man who was serving life in prison for murder died late Sunday at the State Correctional Institution at Greene in Waynesburg.

Jake Wesley, 51, had been incarcerated since March 13, 1996. He was convicted of first- degree murder, rape, robbery, burglary and theft in the killing of Susan Jill Creighton, 35, on June 29, 1994, in Carnegie.

A statement from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said an officer found Wesley unresponsive in his cell about 11: 30 p. m. Wesley was pronounced dead by EMS personnel.

The Greene County coroner will determine the cause of death. Pennsylvania State Police are investigating.

Wesley was arrested one week after a family friend found Ms. Creighton dead in her Fifth Avenue apartment in Carnegie. Her car was found the next day, abandoned on the Carnegie exit ramp from Interstate 279.

Wesley lived in the basement apartment in the same building as Ms. Creighton. At trial, the jury deliberated three hours before convicting Wesley.

In March 2001, the state Supreme Court overturned Wesley’s sentence to die by lethal injection. He was resentenced to life in prison without parole. The Supreme Court overturned the sentence based on a prosecutor’s error.

Wesley told police he was hallucinating on LSD when he climbed into Ms. Creighton’s apartment and punched her after she spotted him inside and hit him with an object.

The Post- Gazette reported that Ms. Creighton had feared Wesley because he had been tampering with her television cable and the lights in the apartment building. Wesley had lost his job as a cable installer at the time of the murder.

The oldest of three children, Wesley was raised in a middle- class family, played the piano and was on his high school swim team.

He was an Army veteran and spent two years at the Community College of Allegheny County and one year at the University of Pittsburgh.