Jon Hand

@jonhand1

The Monroe County District Attorney’s Office is seeking a new murder trial for a Pittsford Mendon High School graduate accused of fatally shooting his father last year.

The office on Thursday filed papers with state Supreme Court Appellate Division, Fourth Department asking the court to reverse then-County Court Judge James Piampiano’s decision to grant a defense motion for dismissal and set free Charles Tan.

Tan, 20, was in his sophomore year at Cornell University on Feb. 9, 2015, when his father, Liang "Jim" Tan, was found dead in the second-floor office of their Coachside Lane home in Pittsford. Shortly afterward, Charles Tan was charged with murder and accused of shooting his father three or four times at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Piampiano’s decision followed Tan's four-week trial last fall which included 50 hours of deliberations by jurors and ended with a hung jury on Oct. 8.

Most people, including Tan's own lawyers, expected he would be scheduled for a new trial when they reconvened Nov. 5 in Piampiano's courtroom — two days after the judge won a 14-year state Supreme Court justice seat.

“It was clearly indicated to both sides that the intention of the hearing was going to be to set a new trial date,” said Assistant District Attorney Kelly Wolford, who is handling the appeal.

Piampiano shocked the courtroom and the community by dismissing the murder charge, ruling that the prosecution presented insufficient evidence at trial to support the accusation. The ruling surprised many, given that the law required Piampiano to consider the evidence in the "light most favorable to the prosecution," and there was evidence alleging that Tan made an admission to the homicide, that his mother said Charles Tan killed her husband, that Tan sought to purchase a shotgun shortly before his father was shot, and that Tan's fingerprint was on a spent shotgun shell and the ammunition box.

The 37-page brief filed Thursday re-emphasizes the “incredible amount” of evidence presented at trial, Wolford said.

Wolford acknowledged there is not a great amount of precedent of prosecutors attempting to appeal a trial order of dismissal, but said the "unusual circumstances" of the Tan case warranted it.

Wolford anticipated the regional appellate court would hear the case in 2017.

Tan's defense lawyer Brian DeCarolis said he received the paperwork Thursday.

"No I didn't anticipate this coming, because the district attorney on national TV said it was a dead issue," DeCarolis said regarding his interpretation of District Attorney Sandra Doorley's comments on an episode of NBC's Dateline.

DeCarolis said he took Doorley's comments to mean she would not be seeking an appeal or a new trial, as did Charles Tan.

"It is surprising and unfortunate," DeCarolis said, adding that Doorley's office is "being creative" because "there's not a good route to get the job (an appeal) done."

Who was Jim Tan? We still don't know

DeCarolis said he informed Tan of the decision immediately when he was notified of it Thursday afternoon.

"I called him as soon as I received it because he deserved to hear it from an appropriate source," said DeCarolis, who declined to reveal Tan's whereabouts. "He's not any different from anyone else, he wants to move on from this."

"He was surprised and understandably disappointed."

JHAND@Gannett.com