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Donte Thomas Pennsylvania Death Row

Donte Thomas was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for the murder of a witness. According to court documents Donte Thomas would shoot and kill a man who was set to testify against a friend of Donte who had been accused of murder. Donte Thomas would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Donte Thomas 2022 Information

Parole Number: 5210U
Age: 44
Date of Birth: 03/19/1977
Race/Ethnicity: BLACK
Height: 6′ 00″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: MEDIUM
Current Location: PHOENIX

Donte Thomas More News

Here, our review of the testimony presented at trial shows that the evidence was sufficient to support a first-degree murder conviction. Dr. Edwin Lieberman, an assistant medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Gaymon/Allen, testified that the victim sustained four gunshot wounds, to the upper arm, abdomen, armpit, and left flank, respectively, the last of which caused damage to numerous internal organs including the heart. N.T., 9/12/07, at 5, 9, 13, 15, 18, 24, 30–31. Dr. Lieberman testified that the victim’s death was the result of the multiple gunshot wounds. Id. at 34.

Several eyewitnesses to the shooting were standing on a street corner with a group of men, including the victim, when the shooting started on the opposite corner. Two of these eyewitnesses, Maurice Gaymon and Stanley Battle, cousins of the victim, testified that they observed Appellant walk down the street and then, upon reaching the corner, pull out a gun and fire multiple shots. N.T., 9/10/07, at 139–42, 198, 205–06; N.T., 9/11/07, at 60–69. Both testified that they saw Appellant’s “whole face.” N.T., 9/10/07, at 142; N.T., 9/11/07, at 69. Mr. Battle testified that he was “just staring at [Appellant]” as Donte Thomas was shooting, and that Appellant was shooting at the victim, firing a total of approximately twelve to fifteen shots. N.T., 9/11/07, at 66, 69, 73, 77. After the shooting stopped, both of these witnesses saw the victim lying on the ground. N.T., 9/10/07, at 156–57; N.T., 9/11/07, at 78. Subsequently, both witnesses identified Appellant in a police photo array as the assailant, and they also identified Appellant in court. N.T., 9/10/07, at 139, 167–69; N.T., 9/11/07, at 63, 85–88.

Malik Adams, who at the time of the murder was a 15–year–old friend of the victim, was also present at the murder scene. He gave a statement to police, identified Donte Thomas in a police photo array as the assailant, and testified for the Commonwealth at Appellant’s preliminary hearing. N.T., 9/13/07, at 54, 56, 61–62, 74–75, 85. In Adams’s statement, he told police that Appellant was the only one at the scene with a gun, that Appellant was the only one shooting at the victim, and that Appellant was the individual whom he saw in the passenger seat of a black car that drove by the street corner shortly before the shooting. Id. at 190–91. During the June 13, 2006 preliminary hearing, Adams identified Appellant in court as the individual who had chased and shot the victim. Id. at 211–12.

However, when the Commonwealth called Adams as a witness at Appellant’s trial, he declined to identify Appellant in court as the individual who had killed the victim, and he repudiated his prior identification of Appellant, his statement to police, and his testimony at Appellant’s preliminary hearing, saying that he did not remember those events. Id. at 61–91. Although Adams identified the signature on his statement and on the photo array as his signature, he claimed not to know how it got there. Id. at 56–60, 70–80. Adams’s statement and preliminary hearing testimony were read into the record at trial. Id. at 183–92, 207–49.

Another witness, Samuel Taylor, had known Donte Thomas for many years and was in prison with him following the victim’s murder. N.T., 9/12/07, at 154–56. While they were in prison together, Taylor testified, Appellant told him that he had murdered someone for a friend of his named “Gus” because the victim was going to testify at Gus’s upcoming murder trial. Id. at 157–58. In addition, Appellant asked Taylor for a “favor,” to wit, to kill the cousin of a witness against Appellant. To this end, Appellant gave Taylor the phone number of his girlfriend. Id. at 158–59; see N.T., 9/14/07, at 59.

Consistent with Taylor’s testimony, other evidence showed that Donte Thomas had visited Glass/Gus in prison on two dates, October 5, 2005, and January 31, 2006, the latter date being only three days before the murder. N.T., 9/12/07, at 57–58. When Appellant was arrested on April 19, 2006, he acknowledged, in his statement to police, that he had visited Glass/Gus in prison several times, including on January 31, 2006, and that he had purchased a cell phone for Glass/Gus. Id. at 96–97, 107–08, 110. Appellant also acknowledged in his statement that Glass/Gus “was worried about his upcoming court case and the witness going [sic] to testify against him,” but Appellant denied that Glass/Gus had asked him to do anything about the witness and he denied knowledge of or involvement in the death of Gaymon/Allen. Id. at 110–12, 114.

Donte Thomas advanced an innocence defense, centered on the testimony of Tamika McMurren, his girlfriend and mother of three of his children, who claimed that Appellant was unable to run or to use his right hand because of debilitating gunshot wounds that he had suffered in August 2003 and October 2005. N.T., 9/14/07, at 15–18, 30–31, 34, 39–42. McMurren testified that Appellant was unable to fire a gun or to light a cigarette with his right hand, although there was nothing wrong with his left hand. Id. at 39–40. Appellant’s gunshot injuries had required surgery, and the surgeon who had operated on Appellant’s right arm on October 31, 2005, testified for the Commonwealth after Ms. McMurren’s testimony. N.T., 9/17/07, at 23 et seq. Specifically, the surgeon testified that Appellant had use of his right hand two days after the surgery, and he would not have expected that ability to change. Id. at 39. The record indicated only a single postsurgical visit approximately a week after Appellant’s surgery, so the surgeon was unable to provide any further information as to Appellant’s subsequent ability to use his right hand. Id. at 36–38.

This evidence is sufficient to establish that Appellant shot and killed Gaymon/Allen with malice and with specific intent to kill. The evidence showed that Appellant chased the victim, repeatedly fired a gun at the victim, and with at least one bullet, struck the victim in a vital part of his body. We now turn to Appellant’s specific claims.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1614719.html

Ronald Taylor Pennsylvania Death Row

Ronald Taylor was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for the shooting deaths of three people. According to court documents Ronald Taylor became enraged inside of his apartment over a broken door and would shoot and kill a maintenance person. Ronald Taylor would go to a nearby fast food restaurant where he would shoot and kill two customers. Following a standoff with police he was arrested. Ronald Taylor would be convicted and sentenced to death.

Ronald Taylor 2022 Information

Parole Number: 918DJ
Age: 61
Date of Birth: 09/30/1960
Race/Ethnicity: BLACK
Height: 5′ 07″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: DARK
Current Location: PHOENIX

Ronald Taylor More News

A long-running dispute over a broken door escalated into a racially-motivated shooting rampage in Wilkinsburg on March 1, 2000.

Ronald Taylor, 39, a man suffering from schizophrenia, became enraged and told two maintenance workers they were “dirty white trash” and “racist white pig.” When the workers left, Taylor was still raging and set fire to his apartment before hunting them down in the building’s basement. Unable to find the worker he was looking for, he turned on another, John Kroll, 55, and shot him in the neck while sparing his black colleague. Taylor then left, disappearing down Penn Avenue.

9-1-1 calls were already coming in for the fire in the apartment, around 11:15 that morning, when Taylor went in pursuit of the next innocent person. Initial police radio traffic indicated that Taylor was still at the scene of the fire, confusing first responders who couldn’t confirm that.

Meanwhile, Joseph Healy, a 71-year-old retired priest from Duquesne University was down the street at Burger King. Known as “Storytelling Joe,” he read to children every day until Taylor, without a word, shot him in the back of the head while he sat in a booth.

Waiting at the next-door McDonald’s drive-through window, University of Pittsburgh physics student Emil Sanielevici, 20, was shot next. He died of his injuries later. The university would later establish a scholarship in his name.

Steven Bostard, 26, a manager at McDonald’s, was shot in the face, but survived. Another man, Richard Clinger, was shot as he sat in his van in the parking lot with his daughter. Clinger also survived, but with lifelong brain injuries and paralysis on his right side.

Still seething and pursued by the massive police response to 911 calls now coming in from the fast food restaurants, Taylor briefly seeks refuge in an apartment, assuring the black resident that he is only targeting white people. As he leaves, he is spotted by police, who don’t realize he’s the gunman until he turns and shoots at them before entering a medical office.

Barricading himself in the Penn West Building, Taylor took five more white people hostage in the office of a senior hospice center. Witnesses would later tell police that Taylor told the hostages he had one more bullet left, but didn’t know which hostage to use it on.

Upstairs from the office was a day care center full of children, which were evacuated along with other workers, as the scene unfolded in front of TV cameras and police cordoned off a nearly two-block area. Officers emptied the building around Taylor of approximately 125 people, which included the safe evacuation of 37 children from the day care.

Taylor raged at police during a tense two-hour standoff, complaining about his mistreatment at the hands of racists. He asked for cigarettes and water, which negotiators provided as they talked to him. They later reported that Taylor considered taking his own life but was concerned about how his mother would handle it, before he was finally convinced to surrender.

Just before 2 p.m., police radios crackled with word that Taylor had been taken into custody without further violence.

During later searches of Taylor’s burned out apartment, police found a suicide note and hateful misspelled rants about the effects of him mental illness and the poor care he received from the mental health system

Among the writings was a note titled “The Satan List” that had a list of targets including businesses and people. Taylor’s landlord believes he left the building in search of her nearby offices, but became distracted when he started shooting at the fast food restaurants.

The .22 revolver Taylor used was purchased from a Wilkinsburg gun shop in 1982 and he stole from his mother.

Taylor had no previous criminal record, no known income, and had been living on Social Security for at least the prior three years while he underwent psychiatric treatment. Neighbors described him as quiet, said he had no family around and few visitors.

As Taylor was walked to jail, he made jokes at reporters and winked at the television cameras that surrounded him.

During subsequent court appearances, Taylor remained emotionless and appeared to count on his fingers throughout the trial.

On Nov. 9, 2001, Taylor was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death two days later. He remains imprisoned at SCI Greene near Waynesburg.

https://www.wpxi.com/archive/this-day-march-1-2000-racially-motivated-shooting-spree-leaves-3-dead-wilkinsburg/AC2KVVXIAFC5RMCEXJDLDUT6NA/

Patrick Stollar Pennsylvania Death Row

Patrick Stollar was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for the robbery and murder of an elderly woman. According to court documents Patrick Stollar broke into the home of the elderly woman who he proceeded to beat to death before robbing the home. Patrick Stollar would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Patrick Stollar 2022 Information

Parole Number: 385HG
Age: 43
Date of Birth: 05/16/1978
Race/Ethnicity: WHITE
Height: 5′ 10″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: LIGHT
Current Location: PHOENIX

Patrick Stollar More News

A Washington County man who was convicted of killing an elderly Upper St. Clair woman in 2003 and given the death penalty will get a new sentencing hearing.

Patrick Stollar, 42, appeared on a video screen from prison during a brief hearing on Thursday before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman.

His attorney, Thomas N. Farrell, argued that Cashman failed to give the jury in Stollar’s 2008 trial the proper instruction regarding his lack of any previous criminal convictions before it began deliberating his sentence. He was sentenced to die by lethal injection. Acknowledging the error, the prosecution conceded to the new penalty hearing.

On Thursday, the district attorney’s office said during the proceeding that they were not prepared to say whether they would pursue a new death-penalty phase sentencing hearing for Stollar before a jury, or whether they would allow the sentence to convert to life without parole, the mandatory penalty in a first-degree murder case.

No one has been executed in Pennsylvania since 1999.

Stollar was convicted for killing Jean Heck, 78, who was found dead in her home by neighbors on June 4, 2003.

Police said she had been beaten, strangled, stomped on and stabbed.

Officers found the address and phone number for Stollar’s mother on a piece of paper on Heck’s kitchen counter, and then went to his place of employment.

They ultimately found him at an apartment where he’d been staying with a co-worker.

He admitted then, officers said, “I killed that woman. I murdered that woman.”

Stollar later provided a full statement to police, telling them he went to Heck’s home to rob and kill her. He also led them to the clothes he had worn that day and the knife he used, which he had buried.

Stollar, who had at one point been found not competent to stand trial, represented himself during the guilt phase. He was found guilty on all counts on Feb. 20, 2008. Two days later, the jury imposed the death penalty, finding that the aggravating factor that the homicide was committed during the course of a robbery outweighed mitigating evidence including Stollar’s life history and character.

In his most recent appeal, Farrell argued that Stollar’s sentencing phase counsel, James DePasquale, failed to request a jury instruction in which the panel would be told that it must find as a mitigating factor that Stollar had no significant history of prior criminal convictions.

During their closing arguments at trial, both the prosecution and defense raised that issue to the jury.

“Lack of criminal record? Good for you, Mr. Stollar,” said then Allegheny County Assistant District Attorney Mark V. Tranquilli. “Good for you that for 25 years you lived by the rules that we all agree to live by … How is that mitigation? That is what is expected of us as citizens of the United States.”

But DePasquale said, in his closing, that he found Tranquilli’s words disconcerting.

“He wants to know how does that become a mitigating factor… Well, I’ll tell him. It is a mitigating factor because in the law, the death penalty law of the state of Pennsylvania, it is clearly and unequivocally a mitigating factor.”

Still, the jury instruction was not given.

“Counsel had no reasonable basis for failing to request that Judge Cashman instruct the jury that they must find the mitigating factor that petitioner had no significant history of prior criminal convictions,” Farrell wrote.

He argued that had that factor been weighed by the jury — if Cashman had provided the instruction — the outcome of the sentence would have been different.

In its response, the prosecution admitted that the instruction should have been provided.

“Therefore, the commonwealth is bound to agree that petitioner is entitled to a new penalty proceeding/hearing,” wrote Assistant District Attorney Rusheen R. Pettit.

https://triblive.com/local/man-sentenced-to-death-in-killing-of-upper-st-clair-woman-granted-new-hearing/

Andre Staton Pennsylvania Death Row

Andre Staton was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for the murder of an ex girlfriend. According to court documents Andre Staton was abusing his girlfriend so she would leave him and file an order of protection. Andre Staton would break into her mothers home and stab her to death in front of her three children. Andre Staton would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Andre Staton 2022 Information

Parole Number: 793GM
Age: 58
Date of Birth: 05/18/1963
Race/Ethnicity: BLACK
Height: 5′ 10″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: MEDIUM
Current Location: PHOENIX

Andre Staton More News

The record establishes that Andre Staton and Beverly Yohn were in an intimate relationship during which Appellant was physically and verbally abusive. As a result of the abuse, Yohn and her two sons moved to the residence of Yohn’s mother, Penny Lantz. In January of 2004, Yohn reported to police that Appellant had struck her. She subsequently filed a Protection From Abuse (“PFA”) petition, and a temporary PFA order was entered against Appellant on January 27, 2004. Following a subsequent hearing, the trial court entered a final PFA order on February 19, 2004.

While at a bar several days later on February 24, 2004, Andre Staton told the bartender about his frustrations with his girlfriend, and about how he had peeked in the window at her the night before. He also indicated that he gave her a substantial amount of money for a house that he could no longer live in, but stated that he would soon take care of the matter. The next morning, Andre Staton was seen inside a parked car approximately one and one-half blocks away from the residence of Yohn’s mother. Yohn’s son, Justin, was outside the home when he saw Andre Staton run up to the rear porch of the residence with his finger to his lips, directing Justin to be quiet. Appellant then kicked in the door and entered the kitchen. With Yohn’s son, Jeremy, in the room, Staton opened his jacket, pulled out a knife, and began stabbing Yohn until she fell to the floor with the large knife still in her back. Appellant then fled through the back door, and encountered Justin outside waiting in the car to go to school. Appellant threw Justin from the car and drove away in it. Yohn died later that day from her injuries. Appellant was thereafter charged with first degree murder, aggravated assault, burglary, criminal trespass, receiving stolen property, and theft by unlawful taking.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1708327.html

Mark Spotz Pennsylvania Death Row

Mark Spotz was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for the shooting deaths of four people. According toc court documents Mark Spotz would open fire killing his brother. Over the next three days Mark Spotz would murder three women in three different counties during violent carjackings. Mark Spotz would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Mark Spotz 2022 Information

Parole Number: 5552W
Age: 50
Date of Birth: 02/14/1971
Race/Ethnicity: WHITE
Height: 6′ 00″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: LIGHT
Current Location: PHOENIX

Mark Spotz More News

Mark Spotz and Christina Noland were young and infatuated with each other. Spotz even brought Noland to meet his family — but what followed was a bizarre sibling feud that ignited a shocking series of murders.

On February 1, 1995, a woman was walking across a bridge in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania when she looked down and realized a woman was laying at the bottom. She contacted police, who rushed to the scene and discovered June Ohlinger, 52, was dead. She had been shot in the back of the head. They soon learned her purse and car were missing too, making a carjacking or robbery likely.

Ohlinger was a devoted mother who had been happily planning the baby shower for her first grandchild. She worked as a cashier at a local minimart and had been on her way to her job, police believed, when she had been taken and killed.

“Pine Grove is a very small town, not a lot of crime, so June Ohlinger probably never thought anything would happen to her early morning opening up the store,” Laura Venet, the documentarian behind “Spree Killer,” told “Killer Couples,” airing Sundays at 8/7c on Oxygen

As authorities got to work on their investigation, they received a call from the owner of a local carwash who had discovered a purse, clothing, and other personal items that belonged to Ohlinger. The car wash had surveillance video, so police were able to lay eyes on the perpatrator. They watched video of Ohlinger’s vehicle arriving at the car wash — and two people, a man and a woman, coming out and tossing the items.

Police knew they had to locate the car and the two suspects, but the following day tragedy struck again just 70 miles from where Ohlinger’s body had been found. Penny Gunnet, a 41-year-old manager of a tax firm, had been found dead under her car on the side of the road. She had been shot in the head and run over.

“Penny Gunnet was someone who was the last person you would think would be attacked. She was known as a loving mother, a great wife. Everyone was stumped. No one knew how or why she could’ve ended up in this situation,” Venet said.

There were disturbing similarities to the murder of Ohlinger: Gunnet’s purse was also missing, and the same kind of bullets were found at the scene. Her husband told police the last time he saw her that morning, she had been heading off to work.

“The police have so many similarities in these horrible crimes and they’re trying to determine what the motivation could be and they surmise the killer is really desperate to have a car and money and those are the driving factors that fuel this case across the state,” Janis Wilson, a former reporter with The Patriot-News told producers.

Authorities got another break when Ohlinger’s car was found abanonded on the side of the road. They dusted the vehicle for fingerprints and found three sets: one belonging to Ohlinger, one belonging to an unknown person, and one belonging to Mark Spotz, a 23-year-old with a lengthy criminal history who was currently wanted for the murder of his brother, Dustin Spotz.

They tracked down Dustin Spotz’s fiancé, who told them the whole story. On the evening of January 31, they had all been together at the Spotz boys’ mother’s home, and Spotz had brought Noland over to meet them. At one point, Spotz got tired and went to take a nap, so Dustin’s fiancé’s young son decided to play a prank on him and dangle a gerbil in his face, which infuriated Spotz. Spotz began cursing the boy out, Dustin got involved to defend him, and the fight soon turned violent, with Dustin stabbing Spotz with a kitchen knife. Spotz then went, got a gun, and shot his brother to death. He and Noland then fled the scene.

The fiancé also told them that both brothers had a very troubled upbringing, enduring a lot of abuse and bouncing around between homes. While Mark Spotz turned to crime, including incidents of arson, he was still known to be very charismatic and had a way with women.

Noland, however, had no criminal history, a stable upbringing, and had generally been regarded as a good kid.

“The heart wants what the heart wants and Christina wanted Mark,” Wilson surmised.

Noland, would soon turn on Spotz, though. She contacted police and confirmed Spotz had killed and abducted both Gunnet and Ohlinger.

“She told the police Mark had lost his temper because a teenage boy had been teasing him with a gerbil and he had gotten into a fight with his brother, and his brother had gotten killed,” Wilson told producers.

Afterward, they fled. They carjacked Ohlinger to find a new vehicle and robbed her for money, and Spotz shot her to death and kicked her body off the overpass. Time passed and they realized they had kept her car for too long, which is why Spotz then carjacked and killed Gunnet. Noland tried to follow him in Ohlinger’s car, but soon lost track of him as he was a better driver. It was then she turned herself in to police and cooperated with the investigation.

“We asked her over and over again, ‘Why she did you stay with him?’ She gave answers to say she was afraid, she was afraid of Mark, she was afraid of what he would do in general if she would turn against him,” Detective John Sancenito, formerly of the North MIddletown Township police, told producers.

Then, yet another body was found. Tree trimmers uncovered the body of 71-year-old Betty Amstudz in the woods in nearby Cumberland County. Like the other victims, she had been shot to death and with the same type of gun. Her purse and car were missing. In an even more chilling turn of events, when they went to Amstudz’s home, they found the door ajar and groceries partially put it away. It was clear she had been taken by force from her own house.

By tracing her credit cards, they were able to track Spotz to a nearby motel. A brief standoff ensued, but Spotz eventually turned himself in. He had committed four murders in four days in four different counties. He was tried for first-degree murder in three counties and voluntary manslaughter in another for the death of his brother.

Noland took a deal and pled guilty to criminal homicide. She was sentenced to 12 to 20 years in prison for Ohlinger’s death and six to 30 years in prison for Gunnet’s death. In exhcange, she agreed to testify against Spotz.

In March 1996, Spotz’s trials began. He acted as his own lawyer and tried to pin all the murders on Noland. The strategy didn’t work. Spotz was found guilty in all four cases and handed down three death sentences. He is currently on death row.

Noland, meanwhile, was released in 2008 after spending 13 years in prison.

https://www.oxygen.com/killer-couples/crime-news/mark-spotz-christina-noland-go-on-pennsylvania-murder-spree

Tag: pennsylvania