Oct 24, 2008 6 min read

Last week, the seven-woman and five-man jury convicted Joseph George Nara, 57, of Waynesburg, of two counts of first-degree murder for killing his wife, DeLorean Churby, 21, and her mother, Virginia Ruth Churby, 61, on Jan. 28, 1984. He shot his wife twice and her mother three times at Virginia Churby’s mobile home in Georges Township. Nara spoke for the first time during the two weeks of court proceedings before Judge Steve P. Leskinen imposed his sentence.

“I want to deeply apologize for all the bad stuff I caused to my family and to my children,” he said, crying. “I’m sorry.”

The case came to trial this year after a federal judge vacated Nara’s two first-degree murder guilty pleas to the shootings last year.

Before deliberating on Nara’s sentence, jurors heard evidence of both aggravating and mitigating factors. They had to decide which they believed and weigh them to see if one set of circumstances outweighed the other in arriving at their verdict.

Early Tuesday, they heard testimony from three of Nara’s four adult children.

Michelle Finchum, 33, of Ohio, testified that her father keeps in contact with her by phone and by letters from prison. She also testified that she visits her father when she can, and brings along her three children.

Finchum is Nara’s daughter with another woman, and described her father as someone who was always good to his children.

“He’s all I have. … We don’t have a strong family bond, we never have,” she testified tearfully. “I still would like to know that he’s there.”

Both she and Nara’s other daughter, Jackie Bosley, testified their father has apologized “for being away” from them since he was arrested days after the shootings.

Joseph Nara Jr., 26, of Uniontown, recalled going to the prison to visit his father with his grandparents. He was raised by the family of his mother, DeLorean Churby, and during his testimony referred to Nara only as “my biological father.”

Bosley, 28, of Smithfield testified that her daughter has come with her to visit Nara in prison. Like her brother, she was raised by the Churby family, and told jurors that she considered both Nara and DeLorean Churby and the family who raised her to be her parents.

Bosley said she was angry with her father at one point, but has come to forgive him. She told jurors she wants to continue having a relationship with him because “he’s a part of me.”

All three of Nara’s children talked about the things he made them in prison. Bosley testified he drew her pictures, and made her daughter a hobbyhorse. Joseph Nara Jr. said his father made him ships and Finchum testified about a jewelry box her father made.

In his closing remarks, Nara’s attorney, Mark Mehalov, told jurors that a verdict of death should be a last resort, only imposed when nothing else would work.

He reminded the panel that Nara would never again have his freedom with a life sentence, because in Pennsylvania there is no parole for that conviction. He also asked jurors to consider that Nara’s children testified on his behalf, and said that Nara missed out on their lives growing up, and will never get to do the things most grandparents do with their grandchildren.

Mehalov argued that Nara had no prior record, has not been a problem in prison and told jurors that he was operating under extreme emotional distress when he shot the Churby women. Those, along with any other mitigating factors they found, could be considered, Mehalov said.

Among those other factors, he argued, was redemption, noting that Nara saw his family and children regularly and kept in contact with them while he was in prison.

“If he didn’t care about these children and what he had done, he would’ve sat there (in prison) for 24 years. But he’s turned a negative into a positive,” Mehalov argued. “This man is important to them (his children). They have forgiven him.”

He reminded jurors that sentencing Nara to death would not bring DeLorean Churby or Virginia Churby back.

“The mitigating circumstances outweigh the aggravating circumstances very easily,” Mehalov contended. “The scales tip.”

Deputy Attorney General Christopher Capozzi contended there were three aggravating factors: multiple deaths, the killings were committed in the course of a felony and that shooting in the mobile home created a risk of death for Bosley and Joseph Nara Jr.

Both were in the mobile home when he shot the Churby women.

Capozzi called a sentence of death “the only conclusion” that the jury should reach.

Mehalov agreed that jurors could find two aggravating circumstances, but maintained that there was no evidence that Nara knew his children with DeLorean Churby were in the home when he killed the women.

In his closing remarks, Capozzi argued that one of the children could be heard crying in the background when DeLorean Churby called police just seconds before Nara shot his way into the home. He also asked jurors to recall the testimony of a trooper who responded to the scene.

Capt. George Kuzilla testified that Jackie Nara Bosley, then age 3, told him, “Daddy did this.” Capozzi maintained that Virginia Churby’s home was like a “tin can” as Nara shot it up with a .45-caliber handgun.

“Those bullets could have gone anywhere, and hit anyone,” he argued.

Capozzi likened mitigation testimony to people saying that Nara was a generally good guy, who just made a mistake. However, he asked jurors to recall that Nara shot his way into the mobile home, shot the women, left his children behind and then fled the state.

“It wasn’t a mistake. It was an intentional killing,” Capozzi argued.

He discounted testimony that Nara was a model prisoner over the years with a “so what?”

“He followed the rules in prison? That’s the bar minimum that’s expected in life,” Capozzi said.

Mehalov countered that no misconducts during 24 years behind bars is “unprecedented.”

Jurors noted in their verdicts that they did not find the children being in the home an aggravating factor. As their mitigating factors they found that Nara had no prior criminal record, had a lessened capacity to appreciate what he was doing, and other, unspecified mitigating factors.

Nara indicated in court that he wants Mehalov to stay on his case and potentially appeal his convictions.