Judge orders new sentencing for convicted killer

A McKees Rocks man sitting on death row for the 1985 murder of three elderly women in Washington County won't get a new trial, but will get a new sentencing, a federal judge ruled today.

Roland Steele, 65, was convicted by a Washington County jury in 1986 for beating to death and robbing Lucille Horner, 88, Minnie Warrick, 86, and Sarah Kuntz, 85. Steele had a black belt in karate and a pathologist testified that two of the victims were beaten until their hearts ruptured while the third asphyxiated due to a fractured larynx.

Steele met the women in a parking lot in Washington city, convinced them that they had car trouble and offered to drive them in Horner's car to a nearby garage. Instead, their bodies were found the next day in a roadside dump in Cecil.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab ruled that while some of the evidence used in the trial was questionable, the bulk of the evidence overwhelming linked Steele to the murders and robberies. He ruled that Steele must be resentenced because the court used a sentencing form that has since been ruled unconstitutional.

The state can ask another jury to send Steele back to death row or just resentence him to life without parole, Schwab said.