Page 2 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 36

Thread: Ricky Ven Smyrnes - Pennsylvania Death Row

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Jury seated in torture, killing of mentally challenged woman

    In two weeks, a jury of seven men and five women will begin hearing evidence in the capital murder trial of a man prosecutors contend was the ringleader of a group of six roommates who tortured and killed a mentally disabled woman.

    Jury selection was completed Thursday when attorneys chose four alternates for the panel. Testimony in the case against Ricky Smyrnes is scheduled to begin Feb. 4.

    Prosecutors contend Smyrnes, 26, formerly of Irwin and McKeesport, was the man in charge as 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty was held captive for more than two days at a Greensburg apartment.

    While in Smyrnes‘ custody, Daugherty was beaten, drugged, raped, humiliated and forced to drink concoctions of bodily fluids and cleaning products, according to the prosecution.

    Testimony from previous trials revealed that she was stabbed in the heart then bound with Christmas lights and garland, stuffed into a trash bin and left under a parked truck in a snow-covered parking lot at Greensburg Salem Middle School.

    Two of Smyrnes‘ co-defendants already have been convicted of first-degree murder.

    Melvin Knight, 22, formerly of Swissvale, pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to death.

    Angela Marinucci, 20, of Greensburg was ineligible for the death penalty and is serving a life prison sentence.

    Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against 23-year-old Amber Meidinger of Greensburg if she is convicted of first-degree murder. Meidinger testified against Knight and Marinucci and is expected to testify against Smyrnes.

    Peggy Miller, 29, and Robert Masters, 39, have cooperated with prosecutors and are expected to plead guilty to lesser charges.

    Smyrnes‘ defense team is expected to argue that he is retarded and that his mental deficiency prevents jurors from finding him guilty of first-degree murder and exempts him from the death penalty.

    During the four days of jury selection, attorneys asked 268 prospective jurors their opinions about the death penalty and about mental retardation.

    Several of the jurors selected for the case said they had relatives with mental disabilities or worked with people who faced mental challenges.

    Westmoreland County Judge Rita Hathaway told jurors the trial is expected to last about four weeks.

    The long trial resulted in the judge asking that four alternate jurors be selected.

    Selected Thursday were two men and two women to serve as alternates.

    http://triblive.com/news/westmorelan...#ixzz2IL9LEWVt
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  2. #12
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Death row killer wants to testify against alleged accomplice in Pa. woman's torture slaying

    A man on death row for the torture-murder of a mentally disabled western Pennsylvania woman wants to testify against his alleged accomplice, who is set to stand trial next week.

    Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck tells a judge that 23-year-old Melvin Knight has asked to testify against 26-year-old Ricky Smyrnes.

    Peck is seeking the death penalty against Smyrnes in the February 2010 killing of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty in a dingy Greensburg apartment.

    Other defendants have previously testified that Smyrnes bullied and controlled Knight who, prosecutors say, stabbed Daugherty then helped Smyrnes choke her with a string of Christmas lights.

    Knight didn't testify at his own two-week sentencing trial in August. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, but let a jury decide whether he'd receive the death penalty or a life sentence.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...-Woman-Torture
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  3. #13
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Trial opens for suspect in Greensburg torture slaying

    The defense suffered a blow before testimony began Monday morning against the man accused of leading six people in the torture and fatal stabbing of a mentally challenged woman two years ago.

    Westmoreland Judge Rita Hathaway has reserved her ruling on whether attorneys can pursue a mental infirmity defense in a bid to save Ricky Smyrnes, 26, from a death sentence being sought by District Attorney John Peck.

    The judge ordered the defense team not to mention the issue in opening remarks delivered to jurors this morning.

    Smyrnes, who has lived in Irwin, McKeesport and Greensburg, is accused of spurring his five roommates to torture and stab Jennifer Daugherty, 30, of Mt. Pleasant in a Greensburg apartment. Daugherty thought she was spending the night with people she considered friends. Her body, tied with Christmas lights and garland, was found in a trash can dumped in a school parking lot on Main Street.

    Peck told jurors that Smyrnes orchestrated hours of torture against Daugherty during more than two days of captivity.

    Peck said Smyrnes presided over three ”family meetings” that Smyrnes called for the group to discuss Daugherty's fate.

    “The defendant was wise enough to always have somebody else do his dirty work,” Peck said. “He wasn't going to have blood on his hands. Ultimately, he relied on Melvin Knight to do his dirty work” and stab Daugherty.

    Defense Attorney Mike DeRiso told jurors the others terrorized Daugherty at their own initiative. She was beaten, humiliated and forced to drink concoctions of bodily fluids and cleaning detergents.

    DeRiso said it was ridiculous to describe Smyrnes as a leader.

    “We don't agree this man over here somehow got together the six of these people and started playing puppet master,” DeRiso said.

    Their ill will against Daugherty was touched off by Smyrnes' girlfriend, Angela Marinucci, 20, of Greensburg, who perceived Daugherty as a romantic threat, roomate Amber Meidinger, 22, of Greensburg has previously testified.

    Meidinger testified against Marinucci, who is imprisoned for life.

    The witness also testified against Melvin Knight, the man who fathered the daughter Meidinger gave birth to while being held in Westmoreland Prison, during a sentencing trial in August. Knight is on death row in the state prison near Waynesburg.

    Peck has filed notice he will seek the death penalty against Meidinger, who testified she had no plea deal but wanted to tell the story “because it is the right thing to do.”

    Still awaiting trial are Peggy Sue Miller, 30, and Robert Masters Jr., 39.

    http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/3...#ixzz2Jx9PeoRD
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  4. #14
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Jury expected to get W. Pa. torture-murder case

    A jury is expected to hear closing arguments and begin deliberating the guilt of a man charged in the torture killing of a mentally disabled western Pennsylvania woman.

    Defense attorney Michael DeRiso tells Westmoreland County Judge Rita Hathaway that his client, 26-year-old Ricky Smyrnes, won't testify Wednesday before the jury decides whether he's guilty of first-degree murder in the February 2010 death of Jennifer Daugherty.

    If Smyrnes is convicted of that crime, the jury will hear more evidence before deciding whether he deserves the death penalty or life in prison.

    Investigators say Smyrnes and five others tortured Daugherty for more than two days in a dingy Greensburg apartment before killing her and dumping her body. One co-defendant was sentenced to death last year and another to life in prison. Three others remain charged.

    http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/ne...#ixzz2KnQdZKA3
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  5. #15
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Psychologist testifies Smyrnes is mentally deficient

    A forensic psychologist testified that accused killer Ricky Smyrnes is intellectually deficient.

    Dr. Alice Applegate, a forensic psychologist with a private practice in Allison Park, said that tests revealed that Smyrnes' IQ ranged from a high of 92 as a child to as low as 60 last fall.

    She said an IQ of 50 to 75 can be considered “mildly mentally retarded.”

    “In my opinion, Ricky Smyrnes has mild mental retardation,” Applegate told a Westmoreland County jury Wednesday afternoon.

    Defense attorneys are seeking to prove Smyrnes did not have the mental ability to form the specific intent to kill Jennifer Daugherty, 30, a mentally challenged woman from Mt. Pleasant, three years ago.

    Prosecutors are seeking to convict Smyrnes of first-degree murder and will ask jurors to sentence him to death if they return that verdict.

    Applegate testified that Smyrnes' adopted mother reported he had been molested by his father as a child and sold into sex with other men by his mother.

    Defense attorney Mike DeRiso won a last-ditch effort to present evidence to jurors about the mental capacity of Smyrnes, 26, formerly of Irwin and McKeesport.

    Judge Rita Hathaway previously barred the defense from presenting such evidence unless the trial reached the penalty phase, when District Attorney John Peck will argue that Smyrnes should die by lethal injection.

    In a landmark ruling in a Virginia case, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the execution of people with intellectual disability.

    In Atkins v. Virginia, the court held that it is a violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel unusual punishment to execute death row inmates with “mental retardation.”

    Hathaway reversed course Wednesday morning, as the jury was poised to hear closing arguments.

    Smyrnes told police he was “under duress” from co-defendant Melvin Knight during the three days that Daugherty was held hostage in a Greensburg apartment, tortured and fatally stabbed.

    Prosecutors allege Smyrnes led the brutality inflicted by six roommates.

    During a 45-minute argument held out of the presence of the jury, DeRiso argued that prosecutors opened the door to allow evidence of Smyrnes mental abilities by playing a 62-minute tape of a recorded statement he gave to Greensburg police on Feb. 11, 2010, the day Daugherty's body was found.

    “The defense of duress didn't exist until the commonwealth mistakenly played the tape,” DeRiso said.

    Hathaway previously excluded that evidence because Smyrnes claimed he was not the killer.

    Knight has been sentenced to death after pleading guilty to first-degree murder and going before a jury in August for a penalty trial.

    http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/3...#ixzz2KogutiXJ
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  6. #16
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Jury to begin deliberations today for ringleader of 'Greensburg Six'

    A jury is expected to begin deliberating the fate of the accused ringleader of the so-called "Greensburg Six" this afternoon at the Westmoreland County Courthouse.

    Ricky Smyrnes, 26, has been on trial for the last two weeks for his role in the killing of Jennifer Daugherty, 30, after days of torture and abuse in February 2010.

    District Attorney John Peck and Mr. Smyrnes' lawyer, Mike DeRiso, delivered their closing arguments this morning.

    Mr. DeRiso's main defense is that his client is mentally retarded and unable to form the intent to kill necessary for the first-degree murder conviction sought by Mr. Peck. If the jury convicts Mr. Smyrnes on that count, Mr. Peck will seek the death penalty at a second proceeding.

    Mr. Peck told the jury today that Mr. Smyrnes, far from the "mildly retarded" simpleton portrayed by Mr. DeRiso, is a "conniving, scheming" leader who orchestrated Ms. Daugherty's death by pitting her against his girlfriend, Angela Marinucci, in a bid for his affections. Ms. Marinucci and the five others who are charged then ganged up on Ms. Daugherty, according to the prosecution, torturing and beating her until one of them, Melvin Knight, killed her with a knife on Feb. 11, 2010.

    "It's stupid, it's bizarre," Mr. Peck told the jury. "But this is what happened."

    Mr. Smyrnes is the third defendant to be prosecuted. Ms. Marinucci is serving life in prison. Mr. Knight pleaded guilty and is on death row. His ex-fiancee, Amber Meidinger, has been the government's star witness, admitting that she beat Ms. Daugherty with a towel rack while forcing her to drink concoctions of feces, urine and bleach. She is facing a possible death sentence.

    Two others, Peggy Miller and Robert Masters, played lesser roles in the killing and are negotiating pleas.

    http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/...#ixzz2Ktt3xIpj
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  7. #17
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Man guilty of torture-killing

    A western Pennsylvania man was convicted of capital murder Thursday for his part in the torture and killing of a mentally challenged woman.

    Jurors in Westmoreland County deliberated for less than two hours finding Ricky Smyrnes guilty, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. Smyrnes, 26, could receive a death sentence for killing Jennifer Daugherty, 30, of Mount Pleasant, Pa.

    The penalty phase of the trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday.

    Daugherty's body was found in a trash can outside a Greensburg middle school on Feb. 11, 2010. The body had been draped with Christmas lights and a garland.

    In his closing statement, District Attorney John Peck said Smyrnes orchestrated the torture and killing of Daugherty, carrying it out with his five roommates in their Greensburg apartment. Peck called Smyrnes "a conniving, scheming, designing, plotting and conspiracy-minded individual" and said he wanted to show Angela Marinucci, 20, that he loved her.

    Smyrnes gave the order before Melvin Knight stabbed Daugherty, Peck said.

    Defense lawyer Mike DeRiso, who presented a witness Wednesday who called Smyrnes mildly mentally challenged, argued that Knight was the real mastermind.

    Knight has already been sentenced to death and Marinucci to life in prison. Three other defendants are awaiting trial.

    http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/...#ixzz2KunX7jYI
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #18
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Decision on Smyrnes' death sentence hinges on mental impairment

    Is Ricky Smyrnes mentally impaired? If he is, the state can't kill him. If he isn't, he's likely to end up on death row.

    That's the central debate expected to begin today in a Greensburg courtroom over the fate of Mr. Smyrnes, convicted last week in the 2010 torture slaying of Jennifer Daugherty in a Greensburg apartment.

    The jury agreed with District Attorney John Peck that Mr. Smyrnes, 26, manipulated his five roommates into abusing Daugherty for more than two days before a co-defendant, Melvin Knight, stabbed her on Feb. 11, 2010.

    Mr. Peck said Mr. Smyrnes pitted Daugherty, 30, against his girlfriend, Angela Marinucci, 20, in a bid for his affection. An enraged Marinucci then attacked Daugherty and spurred on the others to torture and kill her.

    Marinucci is in prison for life. Knight, 23, is on death row. Mr. Smyrnes will join him there if Mr. Peck has his way during the penalty phase, which starts this morning before the same jury.

    Mr. Peck didn't want to talk about specific strategies last week, but he is expected to argue that Mr. Smyrnes deserves to die because he was the leader of the group and they did what he said. He also will introduce Mr. Smyrnes' criminal history, which includes assault.

    Mr. Smyrnes' lawyer, Terrance Faye, is expected to introduce testimony about abuse Mr. Smyrnes suffered in his childhood and to attempt to convince the jurors that he is mentally retarded. The Supreme Court has held that executing mentally retarded people violates the Constitution.

    Alice Applegate, a psychologist who testified for the defense at the trial, will present her findings that Mr. Smrynes' IQ is so low that he cannot function in normal society and so cannot be executed.

    During the trial, she said he is "mildly retarded." The defense used her testimony to try to avoid a first-degree murder conviction, but the jury rejected the argument.

    One of Mr. Smyrnes' lawyers, Mike DeRiso, told the media after the verdict that Ms. Applegate will testify in much greater detail about his deficiencies at the penalty phase.

    Mr. Peck will counter with his own expert, Bruce Wright, a psychiatrist who is expected to testify that Mr. Smyrnes is not retarded or impaired and knew what he was doing in orchestrating the abuse and murder.

    The penalty phase will start today and stop at noon Wednesday because Judge Rita Hathaway is going to a judicial conference. Proceedings are to resume Monday.

    http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/...#ixzz2LKcTskjV
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  9. #19
    Jan
    Guest
    Closing Arguments To Begin Thursday In Smyrnes’ Penalty Phase

    Closing arguments will begin Thursday morning in the penalty phase of the trial for the alleged ringleader of the so-called “Greensburg 6.”

    Earlier this month, a jury convicted 26-year-old Ricky Smyrnes in the murder of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty in February of 2010.

    The penalty phase of the trial began last week.

    In court Wednesday, the defense rested their case after calling their last witness.

    The prosecution also called a rebuttal witness from the child bureau.

    Following closing arguments on Thursday morning, the jury will begin their deliberations.

    Jurors will now have to decide whether Smyrnes spends the rest of his life in prison or gets the death penalty.

    http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2013/...penalty-phase/

  10. #20
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Pa. jury: Convicted killer not 'mentally retarded'

    A western Pennsylvania jury rejected claims that a convicted killer is legally "mentally retarded" and was instructed by a judge to then decide whether he deserves the death penalty or life in prison without parole for the 2010 torture killing of a mentally disabled woman.

    http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/stat...f343c60eb.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

Page 2 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •