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Thread: Death Penalty Trial Set for Cesar V. Mazza in 2015 PA Murder of Tionna Banks and Valorie Crumpton

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    Death Penalty Trial Set for Cesar V. Mazza in 2015 PA Murder of Tionna Banks and Valorie Crumpton


    Valorie Crumpton, 72


    Tionna Banks, 19


    Cesar Mazza


    DA seeks death penalty for man charged with killing ex-girlfriend, her grandmother


    Cesar Mazza charged in deaths of Tionna Banks and Valorie Crumpton in East Hills

    PITTSBURGH — The Allegheny County District Attorney's Office intends to seek the death penalty for a man who's charged with stabbing his baby's 19-year-old mother and fatally beating the young woman's 72-year-old grandmother.

    Cesar Mazza, 25, is charged with homicide in connection with the May 7 slayings of Tionna Banks and Valorie Crumpton at Crumpton's home on Karl Street in the East Hills.

    "The victim was a prosecution witness to a murder or other felony committed by the defendant and was killed for the purpose of preventing his testimony against the defendant," according to a statement released by the DA's office Thursday.

    At the time that the women were killed, Banks had a protection-from-abuse order that required Mazza to stay away from her. Mazza was also awaiting trial on charges that he punched Banks, stomped on her abdomen and dragged her down some steps in November 2014.

    The PFA is listed as one of four aggravating circumstances in the DA's notice to seek the death penalty. The killing of a witness is another aggravating circumstance.

    A SWAT team was called to Crumpton's house after Pittsburgh police found the victims' bodies. Banks had failed to return to a group home for at-risk women and girls after she was given a weekend pass to visit Crumpton.

    http://www.wtae.com/news/da-seeks-de...rders/36121804
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Trial set for man accused of killing former girlfriend, her grandmother in East Hills

    The death penalty trial of a man accused of the East Hills slaughter of his former girlfriend and her grandmother will begin May 16.

    Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel set the trial date for Cesar Mazza on Wednesday following a status conference.

    Police arrested Mazza, 25, in August and charged him with killing Tionna Banks, 25, and Valorie Crumpton, 72, then kidnapping Banks' newborn child. Court records show Banks obtained a protection from abuse order against Mazza, the child's father, after he repeatedly beat her and threatened her life.

    After Banks failed to return to a North Side residential program following a visit to see her grandmother, police found their bodies in Crumpton's East Hills home. An autopsy determined both died of blunt force trauma. Witnesses told police they saw a blood-covered Mazza and the infant leave.

    http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/9...#axzz3xDPhU7Ix
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    October 24, 2016

    Trial Postponed for Cesar Mazza

    Homicide trial for Cesar Mazza postponed. No new date scheduled.

    https://twitter.com/AlleghenyCoDA


    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    October 1, 2018

    Trial Postponed for Cesar Mazza

    Trial for homicide and kidnapping suspect Cesar Mazza postponed by defense. New trial date is May 6, 2019.

    https://twitter.com/AlleghenyCoDA/st...89460522946562
    Last edited by aljazres; 10-06-2018 at 08:35 AM.

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    Allegheny County judge scolds double homicide suspect for firing 6 attorneys in 7 years

    By Megan Guza
    Trib Live

    An Allegheny County judge scolded a man who has gone through a half-dozen defense attorneys in the five years he’s been awaiting trial on double homicide charges, saying he could find himself in the position of having to represent himself in a death penalty case.

    “Words get around quickly,” Common Pleas Judge Alexander Bicket told Cesar Mazza during a status hearing on Friday. “I don’t want to reach the point where you’re representing yourself in a death penalty case.”

    Mazza, 32, has been in Allegheny County Jail since August 2015 when he was charged with two counts of homicide and one count of kidnapping in connection with the deaths of Tionna Banks, the mother of his child, and her grandmother, Valorie Crumpton.

    Bicket said Mazza appears to have an affinity for complaining about, threatening and firing his court-appointed defense attorneys. Assistant District Attorney William Petula said Mazza also threatened him and his family.

    “He’s running out of options,” Bicket said, noting that should Mazza need an eighth attorney, attorneys who would have otherwise been willing to represent him might decline given his history.

    Mazza told Bicket he understood the gravity of the situation. He initially began to speak further, then said something inaudible to his seventh defense attorney, Heath Leff, and Leff then told Bicket that his client had no further comments.

    Police discovered the bodies of Banks, 19, and Crumpton, 72, in May 2015 after a welfare check was prompted by Banks’ failure to return to her residential program after visiting her grandmother in the East Hills. Both had been stabbed and beaten, police said.

    Investigators allege that Banks’ and Mazza’s infant son was in the house at the time of the killings, and witnesses testified they’d seen Mazza and the child covered in blood. The child was unharmed.

    Court records paint a violent portrait of Banks’ relationship with Mazza, beginning several months into her pregnancy with their child.

    “Cesar Mazza currently beats me while (I) carry a baby, also threatening to kill me and my family,” Banks wrote in a protection-from-abuse petition in 2014. Mazza was charged with simple assault and reckless endangerment.

    About a month later, police charged Mazza with aggravated assault, aggravated assault of an unborn child, making terroristic threats and stalking. Banks told police Mazza knocked her down, kicked her in the stomach and threatened to kill her if she did not name the child after him.

    Jury selection in the case is scheduled for October.

    https://triblive.com/local/allegheny...ys-in-7-years/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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