Greensburg torture killer Marinucci returns to court seeking lighter sentence

Bobby Murphy looked over to his left and pointed to Angela Marinucci in a Westmoreland County courtroom Tuesday and told her she gave his mentally disabled daughter no second chances when she and five others tortured and killed Jennifer Daugherty more than five years ago.

“We never got to say goodbye to Jennifer,” Murphy testified during a resentencing hearing for Marinucci that will conclude Wednesday.

“Where's Jennifer's second chance? Jennifer's appeal and second chances ended when they killed her,” Murphy said.

Marinucci, now 22, was convicted in 2011 of first-degree murder and other offenses in connection with the February 2010 torture slaying of Daugherty.

The Mt. Pleasant woman was held captive for more than two days in a Greensburg apartment, where she was humiliated, beaten, tortured, forced to drink concoctions of cleaning products and human waste, bound with Christmas decorations, stabbed to death and discarded in a trash can left under a truck at a school parking lot.

Marinucci, who was 17 at the time of the murder, was tried as an adult and was the first person convicted for Daugherty's death.

At the end of her trial, she was sentenced to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But federal and state appeals courts ruled that sentence unconstitutional, saying mandatory life sentences without parole could not be imposed against juveniles.

As a result, Marinucci wants Westmoreland County Judge Rita D. Hathaway to impose a new sentence that will allow her to be released from prison.

In court Tuesday, Marinucci pleaded with the judge for leniency, saying she is sorry for her actions and that she has changed while in prison.

“If I could take it back, I would,” Marinucci said. “If I get out of prison I will work with my stepfather and go to college. I will prove to you I have changed.”

Marinucci, her parents and her half-sister told the judge that she suffered a catastrophic head injury in 2008 when she was hit by a truck at the age of 15 that substantially altered her life.

That injury changed her demeanor and pushed her into a downward spiral that ended with Daugherty's death, according to the defense.

Defense attorney Michael DeMatt argued that Marinucci has returned to her preaccident condition while in jail and during her incarceration participated in programs and been a model prisoner.

“She has shown a real desire to change. She is trying to make a change for the better,” DeMatt said.

Two mental health experts, testified that Marinucci as a child suffered from depression and that she may have had a drug and alcohol problem as a teenager.

Dr. Steven Zerby, a child psychiatrist for Family Behavioral Resources in Greensburg called as a witness by the defense, said Marinucci was amenable to treatment and could be rehabilitated, making her eligible to win parole eventually.

Dr. Bruce Wright, psychiatry department chairman at St. Clair Hospital in Pittsburgh, testified for the prosecution and said Marinucci has not accepted responsibility for her actions.

Wright said Marinucci told him she had only a small role in the fatal encounter with Daugherty and denied she had romantic interest in co-defendant Ricky Smyrnes, which the prosecution claimed was the cause of the events that led to murder.

“Based on her account ... she cannot be rehabilitated for the offense until she accepts responsibility for her actions,” Wright testified.

During the trial, the prosecution contended Marinucci's jealousy over Smyrnes' possible sexual relationship with Daugherty prompted her to lure Daugherty to Greensburg and initiate her captivity, beating and stabbing.

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said that Marinucci planned the murder for at least a week.

“It was Angela Marinucci who raised this ire and hatred of Jennifer because she didn't want Jennifer involved with Ricky. More than any other person. It's hard to see how she was not, in effect, the ringleader,” Peck said.

Peck told Hathaway that had Marinucci been just six months older when the murder occurred she likely would have been sentenced to the death penalty.

Because she was younger than 18, the prosecution was barred from seeking the death penalty against her.

Marinucci's co-defendants, Smyrnes, 29, and Melvin Knight, 26, are on death row for their role in the killing. Co-defendants Amber Meidinger, 25, Peggy Miller, 32, and Robert Masters, 41, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of third-degree murder and are serving prison sentences imposed by Hathaway that are in excess of 70 years.

Hathaway said she will announce Marinucci's new sentence Wednesday afternoon.

Late last week the judge denied a defense request to convene a separate jury to impose Marinucci's sentence. Hathaway ruled there was no basis in the law to empanel a jury for a non death penalty case.

Rich Cholodofsky is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.