Jury deliberates in homicide case
PITTSBURGH – The fate of a Bullskin Township man charged with killing his estranged girlfriend and her daughter now rests with the jury. The nine women and three men comprising the panel deliberated for nearly four hours on Wednesday in the capital case against Joseph P. Minerd.
Jurors were sent home at about 5 p.m. by U.S. Senior District Judge Maurice B. Cohill who is overseeing the case.
Minerd, 46, is charged with planting a pipe bomb in the Rose Square Garden apartment of Deana Kay Mitts that exploded and killed her and her 3-year-old daughter, Kayla Ashley Mitts, on Jan. 1, 1999. Deana Mitts was nearly 8 months pregnant with Minerd’s child at the time of her death.
Before beginning their deliberations, both the prosecution and defense summarized their cases in closing arguments.
Federal prosecutor Shaun E. Sweeney, assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District, asked the jury panel to not let emotion guide their decision, but asked them to use common sense, objectivity and logic in their thinking process.
“This was not a random act of violence,” said Sweeney. “This crime was focused and personal.”
Sweeney outlined the whirlwind romance of Deana Mitts and Minerd that turned stormy just two months after their engagement when Minerd was told of Mitts’ pregnancy.
The relationship was further complicated, he said, by the disapproval of her mother and the toddler that he could not accept as his own.
His family also had questions about the relationship because the home he was building for himself, his brother and mother would now also have to be shared with someone they learned about through co-workers and other church members, Sweeney said.
“The stress level intensifies for him,” said Sweeney.
Pointing to testimony by Pauline Mitts, Sweeney said, the relationship turned abusive, with her mother finding her with marks around her neck and a black eye.
Sweeney pointed to Minerd’s co-workers who testified that he brought a malfunctioning stun gun to work and asked if it could be repaired because he wanted to “shoot his girlfriend in the belly.”
With Deana Mitts returning an engagement ring to the jewelry store in September, Sweeney said, a defense witness was mistaken when she testified that she saw the couple in October and Minerd announce their engagement.
“In October things start to get worse,” said Sweeney. “He starts to follow her.”
Several witnesses testified to seeing Minerd passing through the parking lot of the apartment complex and Pauline Mitts detailed several incidents when he would follow them from a Tuesday or Sunday night church service.
“Three days before she is killed, she spots the (Minerd’s) blue Blazer again (after a church service),” said Sweeney. “She starts crying immediately; she starts praying immediately because she is so terrified.”
After her death, said Sweeney, Minerd told investigators that he hadn’t seen Deana Mitts since their break-up in July.
Sweeney said the defense failed to produce items from the home with the same price that that investigators claim Minerd paid for the pipe bomb components. A receipt bearing the price of $5.59 and $3.29 from Brillhart Hardware Store was found in the basement of Minerd’s Longanecker Road home by investigators.
Testimony from a store employee indicated that the receipt showed the same price as is charged for an 8-inch pipe nipple and two end caps.
“There is only one person on this planet that wanted Deana Mitts and her unborn child dead and it was Joe Minerd,” said Sweeney. “Joe Minerd made the decision that Deana was going to die, that Kayla was going to die and the unborn child was going to die.”
Defense counsel Richard Kammen, however, said the prosecution and investigators failed to look at accounts from other witnesses who testified to seeing three unidentified men at the apartment complex during the same time period.
“Who was the heavy set man that showed up at the door and then ran toward Deana’s door?” asked Kammen. “Who drove the red car that Cathy Rulli saw in the parking lot?
“Who was the very strange man with the hideous blue suit that Marissa Marin saw?”
Kammen refuted the prosecution statements that only pipe and end caps could have been indicated by the Brillhart receipt or that the prices of the merchandise were the same in November 1998 as they were in June 1999 when investigators inventoried the store.
“(The prosecution) wants you to decide this case on one receipt,” said Kammen.
The presentation of tool mark analysis that showed Brillhart equipment threaded the pipe used in the bomb cannot be deemed as conclusive, said Kammen.
“Two (thread) lines slightly match up,” he said. “It shouldn’t be something close if we’re going to say beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Kammen said that black powder found at Minerd’s home could not be tied to the pipe bomb and that no powder residue was found in his vehicles during the execution of a search warrant.
He also pointed to initial police reports of interviews with Mitts’ family members that did not indicate Minerd to be a suspect in the explosion.
“They told the police they didn’t know of anybody that she was afraid of even after all the times he followed her,” said Kammen.
Kammen told the jury that too many serious questions still existed that would not allow them to render a guilty verdict.
“(The prosecution) knows there isn’t enough evidence (for a conviction),” said Kammen. “There has not been sufficient evidence if all these serious questions still exist.”
The jury will continue its deliberations at 9 a.m. today.