May 30, 2002 By Patty Shultz 3 min read

PITTSBURGH – Jurors will return to deliberations today in the penalty phase of the capital case against a Bullskin Township man convicted of killing his estranged girlfriend and her daughter. The 10 women and two men on the jury are considering if Joseph P. Minerd should be put to death or face life in prison without parole.

On May 17, the jury found Minerd, 47, guilty of planting a pipe bomb in the Connellsville residence of Deana Kay Mitts that exploded and killed her and her 3-year-old daughter, Kayla Ashley Mitts, Jan. 1, 1999.

On Wednesday, U.S. Senior District Judge Maurice B. Cohill laid out how the panel was to proceed with its deliberations.

First, the jury was to agree unanimously that the government had established beyond a reasonable doubt that Minerd had intentionally killed the mother and daughter, intentionally inflicted serious bodily injury that resulted in their deaths, contemplated that a person’s life would be taken and recklessly endangered their lives.

If the panel was in agreement, Cohill said, the jurors must then consider six aggravating factors and agree unanimously that the prosecution proved one or more of them beyond a reasonable doubt.

The jury was then instructed to consider mitigating factors presented by the defense in support of its case for imprisonment. If any juror agreed that the defense had established a mitigating factor by a preponderance of the evidence, the panel was instructed to consider 34 non-statutory mitigating factors, which included background and character traits presented by the defense.

After weighing all factors, the jury is to determine the sentence. All members of the panel must agree upon the imposition of the death penalty.

In responding to one of multiple questions and requests posed by the jury foreman, Cohill instructed the jury that prison inmates should be considered members of the general public. That response stemmed from a question regarding whether Minerd presented no risk of future violence or danger to the public while in prison for life.

Before rendering his responses, Cohill met with the prosecutors and defense counsel in his chambers. No discussion was held in the courtroom, although Cohill provided the media with copies of the jury’s questions and his instructions.

The instructions to the jury followed nearly two hours of closing arguments by prosecutor Shaun E. Sweeney, assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District, and Minerd’s defense counsel, West Virginia attorney Jay T. McCamic.

Sweeney reviewed testimony presented by the government indicating that in carrying out the crime, Minerd was not impaired by a July 1997 fall from scaffolding or by withdrawal from anti-depressant drugs, as alleged by the defense.

Instead, he said, Minerd plotted to kill Deana Mitts and her daughter because he didn’t want the responsibility of their unborn child. Deana Mitts was about 8 months pregnant with the couple’s child at the time of her death.

“You know that he did it,” said Sweeney. “He did not want her to have the baby. …(The prosecution) will tell you Joe Minerd is a good man. Deana Mitts was a good person; so was Kayla.”

McCamic, meanwhile, asked the jury to spare Minerd’s life.

Pointing to Minerd’s relationship with his family and his ability to conform to prison life, McCamic said his client should spend the rest of his life behind bars, not executed.

“You have to look at the whole picture. You have to look at the whole man,” he said.

Jury deliberations will resume today at 9 a.m.