Jury selection to begin in torture slaying

Rich Cholodofsky
Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012 9:42 a.m. | Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012 9:42 a.m.

Melvin Knight

Details

Death penalty history

From the early 1800s through the 1950s 22 men from Westmoreland County were hanged or electrocuted:

• November 1830 — Joseph Evans — Hanged

• Jan. 30, 1875 — Sam Beighley — Hanged

• July 18, 1895 — John Good — Hanged

• July 18, 1895 — William Freeman — Hanged

• Jan. 10, 1901 — John Sadler — Hanged

• Sept. 25, 1901 — Vassel Nikolaw — Hanged

• Feb. 11, 1904 — Charles Crugor — Hanged

• Sept. 29, 1904 — Jacob Prinki — Hanged

• April 25, 1905 — Edward Floyd — Hanged

• April 29, 1913 — Dominick Petrilli — Hanged

• May 22, 1916 — Charles Doughlass — Electrocuted

• July 10, 1916 — Andrew Becza — Electrocuted

• Sept. 27, 1916 — Harry F. Filler — Electrocuted

• May 27, 1916 — GiuseppePolito — Electrocuted

• Nov. 18, 1918 — John B. Dantine — Electrocuted

• Dec. 20, 1920 — Lindsay Moore — Electrocuted

• April 20, 1925 — Angelo Gelfi — Electrocuted

• Oct. 19, 1925 — James A. Scott —Electrocuted

• June 28, 1926 — Angelo Cicere — Electrocuted

• March 30, 1953 — Joseph S. Phillips — Electrocuted

• March 30, 1953 — Dominick Daverse — Electrocuted

• Sept. 26, 1955 — John Wesley Wable — Electrocuted

• Five others were condemned to death but their sentences were commuted or overturned by the courts.

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Westmoreland County jurors have imposed the death penalty against just two defendants since Pennsylvania reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

Starting on Monday, county prosecutors and defense lawyers will for the first time in seven years seek to seat a jury to consider the death penalty against a Greensburg man for his role in what local investigators have described as one of the most brutal crimes in recent memory.

Jury selection will begin for the sentencing trial of Melvin Knight, who in April pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges in connection with the Feb. 11, 2010 torture-slaying of Jennifer Daugherty, a 30-year-old mentally disabled woman from Mt. Pleasant.

Knight, 22, along with his five roommates, are accused of holding Daugherty captive for more than two days, beating her and torturing her before she was fatally stabbed in the heart.

One of the accused has testified of horrific brutality against the trusting woman by those she considered “friends.” The victim was beaten with a towel rack and a vacuum hose while held captive in a bathroom. She was forced to ingest concoctions of cleaning liquids and bodily fluids and prescription medications.

Her body was stuffed into a trash can and left under a truck in a local school parking lot. The victim was wrapped in Christmas lights.

District Attorney John Peck contends Knight should be executed. In court documents, he cites two aggravating circumstances: Knight tortured and raped Daugherty.

The defense will present mitigating evidence seeking to give jurors a reason to spare Knight's life. That evidence is expected to focus on Knight's mental health and his decision to accept guilt by virtue of his plea.

Peck will also seek the death sentence against Ricky Smyrnes, 26, and Amber Meidinger, 22, for their roles in Daugherty's death.

Smyrnes' trial is slated to begin in August.

Meidinger, who had a child with Knight and claims they were engaged, has cooperated with prosecutors but is still awaiting trial.

She testified against Angela Marinucci, now 20, who was convicted last year of first-degree murder. Peggy Miller, 29, and Robert Masters, 38, have agreed to help prosecutors and are attempting to negotiate plea bargains to lesser charges.

St. Vincent College law professor Bruce Antkowiak said the jury in the Knight case will have a difficult time weighing the evidence that was brutally described by Meidinger and Masters, who testified during a preliminary hearing.

“The underlying facts of the crime can never be divorced from the jury's consideration,” Antkowiak said.

The Knight jury will be the first death-qualified jury seated in Westmoreland County since 2005, when jurors condemned convicted cop killer Michael Travaglia to death.

Travaglia was originally convicted and sentenced to death in 1981 for shooting Apollo police officer Leonard C. Miller. Travaglia and John Lesko were both sentenced to die for the Miller killing but appeals required new juries to again condemn them to death.

Lesko was resentenced by a Westmoreland County jury in 1995.

Both men are on death row, along with 229 other men and women throughout the state.

Only three people have been executed in Pennsylvania since the death penalty was reinstated.

“Pennsylvania is a great state for imposing the death penalty but a lousy one for carrying it out,” Antkowiak said.

In Westmoreland County cases:

• March 24, 1989: A jury spared the life of Steven Mignogna, then 21, of Trafford. Mignogna was convicted of raping and killing 12-year-old Melissa Baker and 12-year-old Penny Ansell on Aug. 2, 1988. Mignogna received two consecutive life prison terms and two consecutive terms of five to 10 years in prison for the rapes.

• June 6, 1995: A jury sentenced Colin Bortz, then 27, of East Huntingdon to life in prison a day after it convicted him of killing his girlfriend Erma Lynn Tempest, 35; 14-year-old daughter Tonya; and neighbor Norma Sestock, 41, by setting fire to their Mt. Pleasant apartment building on Aug. 2, 1993.

• Oct. 10, 1995: The life of James Young, then 28, of Jeannette was spared by jurors after he was convicted of setting his house ablaze on June 9, 1993. Killed in the fire were Young's wife, Gina Marie, 26, stepson Shaun Holden, 3, and son Joshua, 7 months.

• Feb. 24, 2000: Jurors sentenced Denard Galloway, 35, of New Kensington to life in prison. Galloway was convicted for his role in the Feb. 2, 1999 fatal shooting of 43-year-old Terry Anderson outside a New Kensington bar. Galloway was later retried, and again convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Brian Aston, Galloway's first lawyer, said Knight's trial will exact an emotional toll from the jury and the attorneys involved in the case.

“Everybody understands the gravity of the case. You will see the jurors struggle with their answers during the selection,” Aston said.

He said that while Knight's guilty plea might enable him to argue to the jury that he is sorry for his actions, the strategy could backfire.

He suggested that jurors might be willing to spare a defendant's life if they have already convicted him of murder.

“You need a place for the jury to vent and in this case the jury does not have a guilt phase to vent in,” Aston said.

Public Defender John Sweeney was on the defense team that successfully convinced a jury to spare Young's life.

Sweeney said the defense's ability to humanize Young, by presenting jurors with evidence of his childhood from family members, helped to save his life.

“The death penalty is a real heavy burden for people. I think they want to be assured they can reconcile it with their own morals and beliefs,” Sweeney said. “In the Knight case, the thing that takes it over is there is an evilness about it.”

About 400 prospective jurors will be summoned to the courthouse in Greensburg for the case against Knight this week.

Before any jurors are questioned on Monday morning, Westmoreland County Judge Rita Hathaway is expected to rule on a defense request to have the jury sequestered for the duration of the trial.

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