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Thursday, September 19, 2002

By Marylynne Pitz, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A Crafton Heights man faces trial on charges that he tried to hire a man on the Internet to rape and kill his mother while he watched.

James Lyle, 18, was ordered to stand trial on charges of solicitation to commit rape and solicitation to commit murder after a hearing yesterday before City Magistrate Dan Butler.

Lyle is being held in the Allegheny County Jail on $100,000 bond.

Lyle, who was arrested Friday, is accused of asking a Georgia man he chatted with on the Internet to kick, rape and murder Susan Ventrosco at the Crafton Heights home she shares with her son.

City homicide Detective Dennis Logan, who testified at the hearing, said that Lyle told the Georgia man, known only as Paul, that he wanted to watch and perhaps participate in the crime.

Lyle, who used the screen name RAPEMYMOMMA, told the Georgia man that he did not want the killing to occur at the Giant Eagle in McKees Rocks, where his mother works, because there were too many cameras in the store, Logan said.

"He wanted to do it at the house. He wanted to see it," Logan said. "He wanted to not only watch but participate in this. He's a real sadistic kind of person."

The Georgia man telephoned Ventrosco at the grocery store Sept. 3.

After identifying himself as Paul, the Georgia man asked Ventrosco if her name was Sue and if she had a son named Jim.

When Ventrosco said "yes," Logan testified, the man told Ventrosco, "I think you should be aware of what he's trying to do to you."

The Georgia man also told Ventrosco he knew where she worked, how long it took her to get there and what kind of car she drove.

The phone call "was a shock to her because she said she wasn't aware of any other problems," Logan said.

The Georgia man mailed copies of the Internet conversations he had with Lyle to Ventrosco, who picked up the envelope at her post office box Sept. 11.

In it, Ventrosco found a 10-page letter that Logan said "is so vulgar and graphic that any mother would be heartbroken to read what was in there."

The envelope also contained a photograph of Ventrosco, which Lyle had sent via e-mail. Ventrosco contacted police after seeing the letter and photograph.

Assistant Chief William Mullen, said the Police Bureau's computer expert is examining Internet records to determine the identity of the Georgia man.

Marylynne Pitz can be reached at mpitz@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1648.