MIDDLEBURG, Pa. — A convicted Pennsylvania killer wants to withdraw his guilty plea saying the state has violated a bargain made with him by preventing him from corresponding with his accomplice wife, currently serving time in another prison. 

Joshua M. Snook is serving 60 years in state prison after he entered a guilty plea in the February 2013 fatal stabbing of his grandmother and assault on his grandfather.

Snook has filed a petition under the Post Relief Conviction Act in Snyder County, Pennsylvania Court to withdraw his guilty pleas based on his inability to communicate with his wife and ineffectual counsel. A three-hour hearing is scheduled for October in county court.

“The commonwealth has not lived up to its bargain,” said Snook, 30, who pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, felony conspiracy to commit murder and aggravated assault based in part on an agreement that he would be allowed to correspond with his wife, Jennifer Snook, who is serving a five- to 15-year sentence for conspiracy to commit murder.

According to his petition, the state Department of Corrections (DOC) doesn’t permit co-defendants serving time for serious crimes to communicate unless both prison facilities allow it.

Snook has filed grievances with prison officials in an effort to be allowed to correspond with his wife, but has been denied, court documents said.

A remorseful Snook was sentenced in April 2014 for fatally slashing his grandmother, Bonnie J. Snook, 71, in the neck and cutting the arm of her husband, Dale, while ransacking their Beaver Township, Pennsylvania home on Feb. 13, 2013, in search of a weapon he planned to use to kill a man he argued with earlier in the evening at a Northumberland County, Pennsylvania bar.

As a condition of the plea agreement, the court permitted Snook to correspond with his wife following her sentencing the next month.

But Snook said the DOC is barring him from communicating with Jennifer Snook, who is incarcerated at a separate facility.

He’s also asking the court to consider his argument that there is no evidence he assaulted his grandparents or that the Snooks conspired to kill the man he argued with.