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Thread: Ricky Ven Smyrnes - Pennsylvania Death Row

  1. #21
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    Pa. jury sentences man to death in torture-murder

    A western Pennsylvania jury has sentenced a man to death for his role in the torture-murder of a mentally disabled woman who was held captive in a dingy apartment for more than two days.

    The jurors in Westmoreland County took slightly less than four hours on Thursday to impose the sentence on 26-year-old Ricky Smyrnes.

    The same jury earlier this month took about half as much time to convict him of first-degree murder in the death of 30-year-old Jennifery Daugherty in 2010.

    The verdict means the jury believed the evidence of torture and Smyrnes' extensive criminal record outweighed his background of having been sexually abused as a child.

    http://www.ldnews.com/state/ci_22686...a-torture-case
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  2. #22
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    Attorney: Smyrnes ‘remorseful, lucid’ as judge issues death sentence

    Convicted killer Ricky Smyrnes has become the 196th person on Pennsylvania's death row.

    Smyrnes said nothing Friday as Westmoreland County Judge Rita Hathaway formally sentenced him to death by lethal injection for the torture murder of Jennifer Daugherty in February 2010.

    A defense attorney who argued that Smyrnes should be spared because he was mentally ill and of low intelligence said he was fully aware of his fate.

    A jury issued the verdict Thursday night.

    “When I spoke to him last night I said I was sorry, Ricky, and that I did everything I could. I looked into his eyes, and his eyes were clear and focused. He looked at me and said, ‘I know you did,' ” defense attorney Terrance Faye said Friday.

    Defense attorney Mike DeRiso said Smyrnes has accepted responsibility for his actions. “He's remorseful and he's lucid. He has an idea of what's going on,” DeRiso said.

    Smyrnes, 26, formerly of North Huntingdon, was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and other offenses for killing Jennifer Daugherty, a 30-year-old mentally challenged woman from Mt. Pleasant.

    District Attorney John Peck said Smyrnes was the ringleader of a group of six Greensburg roommates who held Daugherty captive for more than two days before she was fatally stabbed.

    The group tortured her and one of the roommates raped her, according to testimony. Her body was dumped into a garbage can and left in the parking lot of Greensburg Salem Middle School, where it was found on Feb. 11, 2010. The six suspects were arrested that night.

    Jurors heard nearly four weeks of testimony before convicting Smyrnes and ultimately sentencing him to death in the penalty phase of the trial.

    Reading from a formal proclamation, Hathaway said Smyrnes will be taken to the state prison in Rockview, Centre County, where officials should cause “to pass through your body a lethal injection of intensity sufficient to cause death.”

    “May God in his infinite goodness have mercy on your soul,” Hathaway said.

    Smyrnes showed little emotion throughout his trial.

    His accomplice, Melvin Knight, 23, a former Swissvale resident who fatally stabbed Daugherty in the heart, was sentenced to death in August after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Angela Marinucci, 20, of Greensburg was sentenced to life imprisonment for Daugherty's murder. Marinucci was ineligible for the death penalty because she was 17 years old at the time of her arrest.

    Since Pennsylvania reinstated the death penalty in the late 1970s, only three people have been executed at Rockview. The last execution was in 1999.

    In addition to the death sentence, Hathaway ordered Smyrnes to serve a concurrent sentence of 10 to 20 years for conspiracy.

    During his trial, the defense contended that Smyrnes is intellectually deficient and suffers from various forms of mental illness, including multiple personality disorder. Peck characterized Smyrnes as shrewd and cunning.

    Daugherty's parents said the three jury verdicts have been appropriate.

    “The jury did get the verdict right. They took someone off the street who will never rape, murder and destroy another family again,” said Bobby Murphy, Daugherty's stepfather.

    http://triblive.com/news/westmorelan...#ixzz2MN8sBDqK
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  3. #23
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    Lawyers want to quit Pa. death row torture case

    Attorneys for a western Pennsylvania man on death row for orchestrating the torture murder of a mentally disabled woman want to quit while the defendant appeals.

    Defense attorney Michael DeRiso represented the 27-year-old Greensburg man, Ricky Smyrnes, during the guilt phase of his February trial. Attorney Terrance Faye represented Smyrnes during the penalty phase.

    DeRiso says he doesn't do appeal work in death penalty cases, though Faye didn't list a reason for wanting to quit.

    Smyrnes was convicted of first-degree murder for organizing five others in holding 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty captive in a dingy apartment for more than two day. She was tormented, humiliated and finally killed by people she initially believed were her friends in February 2010.

    Smyrnes is claiming the trial judge made errors, including refusing to let him plead guilty but mentally ill.

    http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/...se-4862403.php
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  4. #24
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    Killer's trial unfair, lawyers say

    The lawyers for convicted killer Ricky Smyrnes said in court on Thursday he should be excused from death row because he was not given a fair chance to defend himself during his trial.

    Defense attorneys Mike DeRiso and Terrance Faye said prosecutors failed to disclose evidence that would have helped Smyrnes convince jurors that another man was the ringleader of a group of six Greensburg roommates who tortured and killed a mentally disabled woman nearly four years ago.

    Smyrnes and his lawyers were in court to appeal his first-degree murder conviction and the death sentence imposed by jurors following his February trial.

    Smyrnes' defense team wanted jurors to hear that Melvin Knight was most responsible for the February 2010 slaying of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty.

    Smyrnes, 27, and Knight, 24, were sentenced to death by separate juries for their roles in the killing.

    Both claimed that the other ordered the roommates to hold Daugherty captive for more than two days and directed the torture, beatings and the eventual fatal stabbing.

    Smyrnes' lawyers said they were never told about a videotape played for jurors during Knight's sentencing trial in August 2012 that showed the defendant fighting with jail guards two years after Daugherty was killed.

    Smyrnes' defense at trial was that he participated in the attack on Daugherty because he was under duress from Knight.

    “The tape could have been used to show who Mr. Knight was and how Mr. Smyrnes succumbed to Mr. Knight,” DeRiso said.

    District Attorney John Peck said the tape was not relevant to Smyrnes.

    “It doesn't show Mr. Smyrnes was present or was aware of what happened,” Peck said.

    The videotape was one of 41 issues raised by the defense in Smyrnes' appeal.

    Westmoreland County Judge Rita Hathaway said she would rule on the appeal as well as the lawyers' request to withdraw from the case.

    DeRiso and Faye said other lawyers should be appointed to defend Smyrnes in his appeal.

    “In order to protect the defendant, he needs a fresh set of eyes,” Faye said.

    A third roommate, Angela Marinucci, 21, was convicted of first-degree murder and is awaiting a resentencing hearing under a U.S. Supreme Court decision. Ineligible for the death penalty because she was 17 at the time of her arrest, she was sentenced to serve life in prison without parole.

    The cases against Amber Meidinger, 23; Peggy Miller, 30; and Robert Masters, 39, are pending.

    The prosecution is seeking the death penalty against Meidinger, who testified against Marinucci, Knight and Smyrnes at their trials.

    Meidinger, Miller and Masters are scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 5, when they could agree to plead guilty to murder charges.

    http://triblive.com/news/westmorelan...#ixzz2lNP8Bvit
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  5. #25
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    Judge appoints appeal attorneys for Smyrnes in torture slaying

    A Westmoreland County judge has appointed new attorneys to handle the appeal of death row inmate Ricky Smyrnes, 27, a former resident of North Huntingdon and McKeesport convicted of first-degree murder in the torture and slaying of a mentally challenged woman.

    In a court order Monday, Judge Rita Hathaway granted the request of lawyers Terrance Faye and Michael DeRiso to withdraw from the case. Lawyers Brian Aston and Jim Fox will replace them.

    Smyrnes was sentenced to death for the February 2010 slaying of Jennifer Daugherty, 30, of Mt. Pleasant, who was held captive in a Greensburg apartment by six roommates, according to police.

    Her body was found in a trash can left in the parking lot of Greensburg Salem Middle School after she was beaten with a towel rack and a vacuum hose, forced to drink human waste and subjected to other abuse, according to trial testimony.

    The judge gave Aston and Fox three months to review the trial record and amend the appeal previously filed.

    http://triblive.com/news/westmorelan...#ixzz2lk8AVjuS

  6. #26
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    Last 2 accomplices in Greensburg torture death head to state prison

    Two roommates who pleaded guilty in the torture death of a mentally challenged woman will be imprisoned for decades, a Westmoreland County judge ruled Monday afternoon.

    The two pleaded guilty in the torture death of Jennifer Daugherty, 30, of Mt. Pleasant, who was beaten and humiliated by six roommates in a Greensburg apartment before she was stabbed in the heart. The group took votes on whether Daugherty should live or die, according to trial testimony.

    Robert Masters, 39, who testified against the group at a preliminary hearing, was sentenced to 30 to 70 years in prison by Judge Rita Hathaway.

    His girlfriend, Peggy Miller, 30, was sentenced to 35 to 74 years by Hathaway.

    The judge said that Masters' and Miller's failure to save Daugherty was “cold and callous.”

    “But for the acts of omission, we wouldn't be here today,” Hathaway told the two. “I am not going to buy for one second you were afraid of what was going to happen to you. I cannot wrap my head around that.”

    Miller and Masters both pleaded guilty in December to third-degree homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

    Daugherty was held captive for more than two days before her body, bound with Christmas lights and garland, was found in a garbage can dumped in a parking lot at Greensburg Salem Middle School on Feb. 11, 2010.

    She had gone to spend the night at the apartment with the group of roommates she considered friends. Miller ignored a plea from Daugherty to call her mother, according to trial testimony.

    They turned on her when Angela Marinucci, 21, became jealous because she feared Daugherty threatened Marinucci's relationship with Ricky Smyrnes, 27, according to previous trial testimony.

    Masters and Miller did nothing to intervene as the violence escalated against Daugherty and when Smyrnes, the ringleader, and Melvin Knight, 24, were away from the apartment, according to testimony from Amber Meidinger, 23, the prosecution's key witness.

    In three trials, Meidinger testified that Daugherty was beaten with a towel rack and vacuum hose and was forced to drink concoctions of human waste and household detergents. They cut her hair and dumped nail polish on her.

    Meidinger pleaded guilty to third-degree homicide for her role and was sentenced to 40 to 80 years. She avoided a possible death sentence when she agreed to testify against Marinucci, Smyrnes and Knight.

    Smyrnes and Knight have been sentenced to death. Marinucci, who was 17 at the time of the killing, is serving a life sentence. But a sentencing hearing will have to be held for the former Greensburg Salem High School student because of a court decision that mandatory terms of life imprisonment could not be automatically imposed on juveniles convicted of first-degree murder.

    http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/5...#ixzz2wGPh8WxO

  7. #27
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    Greensburg torture killer drops appeal, 'will spend my time in jail'

    The woman who was the linchpin in the prosecutions of a group of Greensburg roommates convicted in the torture slaying of a mentally disabled woman said in court Tuesday she no longer wants to challenge her sentence.

    Amber Meidinger, 25, was in court to ask a judge to reconsider the 40- to 80-year sentence she received for pleading guilty in December 2013 to a lesser charge of third-degree murder.

    “I appreciate my sentence,” Meidinger told the judge.

    Westmoreland County prosecutors had sought a first-degree murder conviction and the death penalty against Meidinger, who participated in the February 2010 torture and stabbing death of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty of Mt. Pleasant.

    Police said Daugherty was held captive for more than two days while being beaten, tortured and eventually stabbed to death. Her body was wrapped in Christmas lights and garland, stuffed into a plastic garbage container and discarded in a school parking lot.

    Meidinger was considered a ringleader of the six roommates, according to prosecutors.

    Prosecutors agreed to allow her to plead guilty to the lesser charge for giving key testimony against three of her co-defendants, including two men who eventually were sentenced to die by lethal injection.

    Meidinger said she filed her appeal based on the advice of fellow inmates. In the appeal, Meidinger said that her sentence was excessive and that she was dissatisfied with the work of her attorney, Amy Keim.

    Westmoreland County Judge Rita Hathaway told Meidinger that a successful appeal could result in her case going to trial and that the prosecution could again seek a conviction of first-degree murder and the death penalty.

    “I believe the evidence was pretty overwhelming,” Hathaway said. “Even (if the district attorney) didn't seek the death penalty, there is no doubt in my mind you would have been convicted of first- or second-degree murder.”

    Responding to questions from Hathaway, Meidinger said she no longer wanted to pursue her appeal.

    “I don't want a new trial,” Meidinger said. “I will spend my time in jail.”

    http://triblive.com/news/westmorelan...#ixzz3PQpDYPKv

  8. #28
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    Lawyers for convicted killer Smyrnes want info about death row

    Attorneys for a convicted killer said they plan to research death row living conditions more before deciding whether to challenge the constitutionality of Ricky Smyrnes' death sentence.

    More information about the day-to-day life on death row is being sought from Smyrnes, 29, formerly of Irwin, and the state prison in Greene County where he is being held.

    Smyrnes was convicted in the February 2010 torture slaying of Jennifer Daugherty, a mentally-challenged woman killed by six Greensburg roommates. Smyrnes is one of two men sentenced to die for his role in Daugherty's stabbing. He has been on death row since his 2013 conviction.

    “We will speak with our client more in depth concerning that,” Attorney Brian Aston told Judge Rita D. Hathaway Thursday afternoon during an evidentiary hearing on Smyrnes' post-sentence motions.

    Aston and James Fox have been appointed to act as Smyrnes' appeal attorneys. They filed the motion in February that seeks to overturn the death sentence and Smyrnes' first- and second-degree murder convictions.

    In their appeal, the attorneys state that the sentence violates Smyrnes' rights because he is subject to solitary confinement for 23 hours daily. SCI-Greene houses a majority of the state's 188 male death row inmates.

    Earlier this year, Gov. Tom Wolf issued a moratorium on capital punishment while a commission charged with reviewing the state's death penalty completes its work. Conditions in which condemned inmates are housed will not change, the governor said.

    Death row inmates are kept segregated from the rest of the prison population and they have “a certain degree” of access to research materials and their attorneys, said Bruce Antkowiak, a law professor at St. Vincent College near Latrobe.

    Pennsylvania has carried out three executions, all of inmates who waived their appeals, since 1976 with the last in 1999.

    Avoiding execution is the biggest goal for appeal attorneys, Antkowiak said.

    “You don't know if you represent someone on death row whether the mood of things will change,” Antkowiak said. “Having a defendant who is on death row is the ultimate challenge for any lawyer. The stakes couldn't be any higher than they are.

    “Any attorney who accepts the court appointment on a case like this — your duty is clear,” he said.

    Attorneys argued other issues in the appeal Thursday.

    The prosecution said Smyrnes was the leader who took votes from the group of roommates as to whether Daugherty should be tortured, then killed and how her body should be discarded.

    Aston argued that prosecutors' use of torture as an aggravating factor in the capital phase was improper because the decision to kill Daugherty came in a “family meeting” with the six co-defendants that occurred after she was tortured during two days of captivity.

    “You have this torturous behavior that did exist, but it wasn't present at the time of the intent to kill,” Aston said.

    Assistant District Attorney Leo Ciaramitaro argued that torture was a proper aggravating circumstance because Smyrnes did wield the murder weapon — a knife — at one point in time, even if he didn't inflict the fatal blow.

    In addition to Smyrnes, Melvin Knight was convicted of first-degree murder and received the death penalty. Prosecutors presented trial evidence that Knight inflicted the fatal stab wound.

    Smyrnes' attorneys called the credibility of prosecution witness and co-defendant Amber Meidinger, 25, into question.

    “The defense should've been permitted to explore” whether Meidinger was taking her medication and if that had an impact on her memory and perception of what was occurring, Fox argued.

    Ciaramitaro responded that the trial attorney spent time questioning Meidinger's recollection of the events during cross-examination.

    Other issues include claims by the defense that Hathaway improperly admitted testimony from Meidinger and limited a psychologist's testimony.

    According to the defense, the prosecution should not have been allowed to argue to the jury that crimes Smyrnes committed as an 11-year-old could be used in deciding to sentence him to death. Hathaway ordered the attorneys to submit written legal briefs.

    Angela Marinucci, then 17, also was convicted of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to a life term but is scheduled to return to court this year to be resentenced.

    Meidinger, along with two other co-defendants, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and received lesser sentences, although each will spend at least between 30 and 40 years in prison.

    http://triblive.com/news/westmorelan...#axzz3atAjRSjo
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  9. #29
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    Death row inmate Smyrnes claims isolation cruel and unusual punishment in Westmoreland County case

    Convicted killer Ricky Smyrnes wants a job.

    But with a long waiting list for the few employment opportunities for inmates, Smyrnes sits in his small cell on death row at the State Correctional Institution in Greene County for 23 hours a day with little to do, according to his lawyers.

    Smyrnes' “alone time,” along with the continued moratorium on the death penalty ordered earlier this year by Gov. Tom Wolf, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, his lawyers said.

    Smyrnes' defense team on Wednesday asked that an expert be appointed to help make their case that the ringleader in the 2010 torture slaying of Jennifer Daugherty should have his death sentence overturned.

    “Experts .. have written extensively and litigated issues concerning solitary confinement ... all resulting in courts finding that such indefinite periods in solitary confinement are cruel and unusual as they inflict mental suffering upon individuals,” said defense lawyers Brian Aston and Jim Fox.

    Westmoreland County Judge Rita Hathaway ordered that a hearing be conducted on the defense's request to hire an expert witness. A hearing date hasn't been set.

    Smyrnes, 29, formerly of Irwin, was condemned to death following a jury trial in 2013 where he was convicted of first-degree murder. Daugherty, 30, of Mt. Pleasant, was mentally challenged.

    Prosecutors said Smyrnes led a group of six Greensburg roommates who held Daugherty captive for two days. They humiliated, abused, beat, tortured and eventually stabbed her to death. Her body, wrapped in Christmas lights and garland, was stuffed into a trash can and left under a truck parked in a snow-covered school parking lot.

    Witnesses said Smyrnes was one of two men who stabbed Daugherty and led “family meetings” in which a vote was taken to kill their captive.

    District Attorney John Peck said the death penalty is the proper sentence for Smyrnes and questioned the discomfort of his living conditions.

    “Certainly he must prefer being on death row rather than having the death penalty imposed upon him,” Peck said. “Clearly this was one of the worst homicide cases we've had in Westmoreland County, at least in my career.”

    http://triblive.com/news/westmorelan...#ixzz3hMwZ2Yhn

  10. #30
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    Westmoreland judge rejects Daugherty murderer's complaints about death row conditions

    The mentally disabled woman tortured and stabbed to death by Ricky Smyrnes was foremost on the mind of Judge Rita Hathaway on Thursday when she ruled that the murderer is going to have to make do with whatever comforts he can find on death row.

    The judge rejected a defense request to appoint an expert to examine death row living conditions as part of Smyrnes' ongoing appeal of his death sentence.

    “I guess you're asking me to make Mr. Smyrnes more comfortable on death row,” Hathaway said at the hearing in Westmoreland County court. “I'm not hearing any argument that he's being tortured on death row, unlike the innocent victim in this case, Jennifer Daugherty.”

    Smyrnes, along with five of his Greensburg roommates, were convicted of the February 2010 torture slaying of Daugherty. The prosecution said Smyrnes, 29, formerly of Irwin, was ringleader of the group and convened “family meetings” in which the roommates voted to kill Daugherty, then discard her body.

    According to testimony during the trials, Daugherty, 30, of Mt. Pleasant was humiliated, beaten, tortured and stabbed to death. Smyrnes and Melvin Knight, 25, were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

    Hathaway presided over all the cases connected to the torture slaying. During a sentencing hearing this summer for Angela Marinucci, who is also appealing her sentence of life in prison without parole, the judge said Daugherty's murder was one of the toughest for her to sit through during her two-decade career on the bench.

    Hathaway has said she has nightmares and still struggles with the vivid details of what was done to Daugherty.

    But it's Smyrnes who contends his death sentence is cruel and unusual punishment, because there is little likelihood he will be executed and he now stays in solitary confinement with little interaction with the outside world.

    Smyrnes' appeal, in which he says there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction, also focused on constitutionality questions surrounding his sentence.

    Defense attorneys Brian Aston and James Fox argued that Smyrnes' living conditions — in which he is allowed only three showers a week and out of his cell for two hours a day — cause him to suffer from hallucinations, paranoia, depression and loss of appetite.

    “All of those psychological effects are due to solitary confinement and are cruel and unusual punishment,” Aston said.

    The defense argued that since the death penalty was reinstated in Pennsylvania in 1976, there have been 182 defendants sent to death row and only three executed. During that same time, there have been 124 cases in which death sentences were reversed and 118 cases in which capital punishment was reimposed as a result of new hearings, Aston said.

    “We're ready to explore whether the system itself is so broken it needs to be redone,” Aston said.

    Gov. Tom Wolf has imposed a moratorium on the death penalty until the state's practices with regards to capital punishment can be reviewed.

    Meanwhile, the judge offered a suggestion to Smyrnes should he continue to have a problem with death row living conditions.

    “The conditions you are complaining about should be addressed through a civil lawsuit against the Department of Corrections,” Hathaway said.

    http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/9...#ixzz3m5C46dNz

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