By Associated Press - Monday, September 22, 2014

SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) - A prosecutor will pursue the death penalty against a western Pennsylvania man jailed on charges that he killed his pregnant girlfriend and her baby.

The public defender for 25-year-old Denver Blough (BLUFF) didn’t immediately return a call after Somerset County District Attorney Lisa Lazzari-Strasiser called a news conference to announce her decision Monday.

Twenty-three-year-old Caressa Kovalcik died after police say Blough shot her in their Windber apartment on May 31. Kovalcik, who was 8½ months pregnant, delivered by C-section shortly before she died, but her baby died June 20 of complications from the shooting. A coroner ruled the baby suffered from a lack of oxygenated blood.



Blough remained jailed Monday on two counts of criminal homicide and other charges in the shooting, which he has said was an accident.

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