Doctor Is Convicted of 1976 Slaying

A doctor who for 21 years claimed his friend was killed in a trapshooting accident was convicted of murdering the man so he could marry his widow. Dr. Stephen Scher sat with his hands folded as he heard the first-degree murder verdict in Montrose, Pa., that brought an immediate sentence of life in prison without parole. Scher, 56, had maintained that his friend, lawyer Martin Dillon, tripped and shot himself during the 1976 outing while chasing a porcupine. The death initially was ruled an accident, but the case was reopened at the insistence of Dillon’s father. Prosecutors contended Scher shot Dillon so he could marry his widow, with whom the doctor was carrying on an affair.