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Wilkinsburg killer of 3 to die, judge confirms O'Toole also sentences Taylor to 65 to 130 years in prison Saturday, January 12, 2002 By Jim McKinnon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A judge yesterday ordered what a jury previously had decided: that Ronald Taylor should die by lethal injection for the March 1, 2000, racially motivated shootings in Wilkinsburg in which three men were killed and two others wounded.
Common Pleas Judge Lawrence J. O'Toole didn't stop there, adding 65 to 130 years to the death sentence.
"These offenses are more onerous than usual," O'Toole told Taylor. "You're obviously a poor candidate for rehabilitation. You showed no remorse during the trial and you show no remorse now."
Taylor, 41, was convicted Nov. 8 on 46 counts, including three counts of homicide; four counts of aggravated assault; three counts each of making terroristic threats and unlawful restraint; and one count of arson.
Before O'Toole ruled, a tearful Carol Kroll, widow of one of the victims, said, "I think Ronald Taylor needs to pay for this with his life. He pulled the trigger ... for no other reason but that [Kroll] was white. He took my life as well."
Taylor is black. All of his victims were white.
Carol Kroll drew the only noticeable reaction that observers have seen from Taylor when she turned to him and pointed a trembling finger as he sat between his two attorneys.
"All of the kids have been cheated out of time with their dad because of you," Carol Kroll said. For an instant, Taylor flashed a look of surprise in her direction, immediately averting his gaze and returning to his characteristically stoic demeanor.
"Ronald Taylor, you're an evil man," Carol Kroll continued. "I hope you suffer greatly every day while you're waiting to die."
Her husband, John Kroll, 55, of Cabot, a carpenter, had not been involved in the dispute that triggered Taylor's rampage. It was between Taylor and John DeWitt, a maintenance man with whom Taylor had a running feud largely centered on race. But in looking for DeWitt, Taylor came upon Kroll and shot him to death.
Taylor then walked into the Wilkinsburg business district, where, at two fast-food restaurants, he shot and killed Joseph Healy, 71, of Wilkinsburg, and Emil Sanielevici, 20, of Greenfield.
Taylor also shot Richard Clinger, 57, of North Huntingdon, and Steve Bostard, 26, of Swissvale. Both survived.
Dr. Horacio Fabrega Jr., a defense psychiatrist and anthropologist, testified during the sentencing hearing in November that Taylor, during the shootings, was in the throes of a "psychotic storm" triggered by the dispute that morning with DeWitt, who had been repairing an apartment door Taylor had damaged.
Defense attorney Lisa Middleman, who represented Taylor during the penalty phase of the trial, yesterday made an emotional, albeit futile plea in protest of the death sentence.
She told O'Toole to go ahead with the order, despite evidence that Taylor suffers from chronic paranoid schizophrenia.
"Sentence him in the name of retribution. Sentence him in the name of the law. Sentence him in the name of vengeance," Middleman said, pausing to sob briefly.
"But," she continued, "for those of us who believe there's justice in this building, don't sentence him in the name of justice."
When asked whether he wanted to say anything, Taylor quietly indicated that he did not.
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