Walton gets life plus 20 for murder
Rosemary Rulli Prycl could barely speak as she told Westmoreland County Judge John Blahovec how the 1998 murder of her sister has affected her 7-year-old nephew.
Prycl tearfully explained how the child routinely asks when his mother, Philomena Rulli Robinson, will return and when he will be able to see her again.
'With your selfish act you took Phil away from all of us,' Prycl said Monday during a brief sentencing hearing for convicted murderer Terry L. Walton Sr.
Walton, 45, of 416 Harrison Ave., Greensburg, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison plus an additional 20 years for the Dec. 29, 1998, shooting of Robinson, 42, in the parking lot at the Rosewood Apartments in Greensburg.
Prycl, Robinson's sister, was one of three witnesses who testified yesterday during the sentencing hearing.
She spoke about Robinson's family life - that she was the mother of two boys, ages 23 and 7, and how the large clan has been devastated by her murder.
Prycl then flashed a picture of her sister's grave toward Walton.
'We always went to visit her. This is where we go to visit my sister now,' Prycl told Walton.
Robinson's father, Dominick Rulli, asked Blahovec to impose the maximum sentence allowed by law.
'I want Terry Walton to know he is nothing but a murderer, and he should go to prison for the rest of his life,' Rulli said.
Walton showed no emotion during the hearing and made only a brief statement before being sentenced.
In a soft voice, the former star basketball player at Greensburg Salem Senior High School apologized for the shooting.
'I just want to say, sir, I apologize for these actions that led me to this. I apologize to the court, to the family, and to my family and friends that I have hurt,' Walton said.
On Feb. 6, Walton was convicted by Blahovec of first-degree murder, attempted homicide and other related charges after eight days of testimony.
On the eve of the trial, prosecutors agreed to forgo seeking the death penalty against Walton when defense attorneys permitted Blahovec to preside over the nonjury trial.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors said Walton stalked Robinson in the two months after their breakup. He went to her apartment building on Dec. 29 with a loaded gun and waited for her outside.
As Robinson left the building with her neighbor, April Stauffer Fabery, shortly after 6 a.m., Walton approached the women and threatened their lives.
He pointed the gun at Fabery's face and pulled the trigger three times. The weapon did not discharge. Walton fixed the gun, ran after Robinson and fired once, striking her in the side of the face.
Walton then turned the gun on himself and grazed the top of his head with a shot. He was hospitalized for two nights as the result of a fractured skull and lacerations he sustained in the shooting.
Blahovec said he gave Walton an additional 20 years in prison on top of the mandatory life sentence because of his actions toward Fabery.
'The only thing that saved her life was that the gun didn't go off. I believe you would have killed her that day, too,' Blahovec said.
Fabery was equally sure that she could have died at Walton's hands.
She told the judge yesterday that she is still deeply affected by the shooting.
'To have a gun put up in your face and pull the trigger three times is not a joke. It is a cruel and inhumane act that I will never get over,' Fabery said.
Robinson's shooting culminated an off-and-on romantic relationship between her and Walton that spanned more than a decade.
The shooting was not the first incident between the two that ended in Walton's imprisonment.
Walton was convicted in 1987 of threatening Robinson with a gun. He pleaded guilty to a charge of making terroristic threats for holding Robinson at gunpoint and threatening to kill her after they had broken up.
Walton served a four- to eight-year prison sentence for that conviction.
Although both were married to other people, they reunited sometime after Walton was released from prison. About Halloween 1998, they broke up again.
Walton said at his trial that he broke off the relationship at the urging of his wife.
The breakup sent Walton into a deep depression, he claimed. That depression led him to try to commit suicide, which he planned to do in front of Robinson on the morning that he shot her.
Walton said he went to Robinson's apartment to kill himself. He pointed the gun at Fabery to scare her off, he said. Robinson then ran away. As she approached her car, Walton shot in her direction. The shot accidentally struck her in the face, Walton testified.
The defense also presented evidence at the trial from a doctor who claimed Walton was too depressed to form an intent to kill, and that he was too high from smoking marijuana that morning to understand the ramifications of his actions.
Defense attorneys did not dispute that Walton was the shooter but asked Blahovec to find him guilty of involuntary manslaughter, the lesser misdemeanor charge.
