Steven Colegrove Sentenced to LWOP in 2007 PA Triple Murder

[Jeff1857]

Jury selection will begin January 12th for a Deposit man accused of a triple murder.
 
Steven Colegrove is charged with three counts of Criminal Homicide in the shooting deaths of his parents Joseph and Marlene Colegrove and his brother Michael Colgrove on August 8th, 2007, in Laceyville, Pennsylvania.

Bradford County District Attorney Daniel Barrett will be prosecuting the case and will seek the death penalty.  Testimony is set to begin January 19th.

http://www.wicz.com/news2005/viewarticle.asp?a=7947

[Michael]

Triple murder trial begins this week

Testimony in the triple murder trial of former Deposit resident Steven Colegrove is expected to begin Tuesday in Bradford County Court in Towanda, Pa.

Colegrove faces three counts of criminal homicide in the shooting deaths of his parents and a brother in their Tuscarora Township home on Aug. 8, 2007.

Prosecutors alleged Colegrove, who lived in Deposit at the time of the shootings, killed his father, Laceyville Fire Chief Joseph Colegrove, 60; his mother, Marlene Colegrove, 56, a Wyalusing School District bus driver; and a brother, Michael Colegrove, 35, who lived with his parents.

When the trial begins Tuesday, Bradford County District Attorney Daniel Barrett will face off against Public Defender Helen Stolinas and Williamsport attorney William Miele.

County Judge Maureen Beirne will hear the case.

A week of jury selection ended Friday with 12 jurors and three alternates selected. One more alternate still must be chosen today.

If Steven Colegrove is found guilty, the district attorney plans to ask for the death penalty.

The Pennsylvania death penalty statute says if a defendant is found guilty of capital murder, a jury must vote for a death sentence if it finds at least one aggravating circumstance as outlined by the statute and no mitigating circumstances, or if the jury unanimously finds one or more aggravating circumstance that outweigh any mitigating circumstances.

Otherwise, the verdict must be life in prison.

The defendant has been held without bail in the Bradford County Jail since his arrest several days after the murders.

Each victim was shot twice with a 12-gauge shotgun in the bedrooms of their home on Kirk Road.

State police at Towanda, when they arrested Steven Colegrove about three days after the murders, described the crime as an "execution-style" homicide.

Colegrove has denied killing his parents and brother.

Much of the prosecution's case was laid out in a 22-page criminal complaint from troopers George Confer and James Kerrick and in Colegrove's preliminary hearing and other court appearances leading up to the trial.

They include arguments that:

* Steven Colegrove shot his father and brother as they slept and killed his mother as she tried to leave her bedroom. All three were shot in the head and face with 3-inch magnum cartridges from the shotgun, police said. Marlene Colegrove also was shot in the hand. Police theorize that she put her hand in front of her face or tried to grab the gun.

* During a search of the Colegrove home after the murders, police recovered a letter in a safe indicating when the parents died, the couple's other son Robert was to get only $1. That meant if the parents and Michael were dead, Steven would inherit all but $1 rom his mother's $100,000 insurance policy and any other family money and property.

* Investigators said the killer tried to make the Colegrove home look as if the killings were the result of a burglary gone bad.

* During the interrogation, police found injuries on Steven Colegrove's hands and right shoulder. The shoulder injury was consistent with having fired a shotgun, police said.

* When a doctor examined the shoulder injury, he said it was approximately 72 hours old, linking it to the time of the murders.

* Investigators determined that the shotgun used in the murders is owned by Robert Rynearson Sr., with whom Steven Colegrove lived.

* There were inconsistencies in what Colegrove told them during his interrogations.

Stolinas and Miele have not revealed much of their defense strategy.

In pre-trial motions argued in March, the defense team:

* Asked the court to suppress evidence in the case that they claim police found after Colegrove said he wanted legal representation.

* Asked the court to move the trial out of Bradford County or neighboring counties or to bring in an outside jury because the pre-trial publicity was "pervasive and sensational," preventing the defense from finding an impartial local jury.

Because this is a death penalty case, Stolinas said recently, in addition to preparing a defense for Colegrove, she and Miele also must be prepared for arguments during the sentencing portion of the trial should Colegrove be found guilty.


http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20090118/NEWS01/901180372&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

[Jeff1857]

TOWANDA — A jury on Wednesday found Steven Colegrove guilty of killing his parents and brother, and tomorrow they will begin deliberating over the punishment to be meted out.

When they do, the prosecutor in the case will seek the death penalty for the 32-year-old man who shot his kin to death in their Tuscarora Twp. home nearly a year-and-a-half ago.

“Three people are dead, and that’s a tragedy,” Bradford County District Attorney Daniel Barrett said.

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated nearly 6-1/2 hours before rendering its verdict. They found Mr. Colegrove, of Deposit, N.Y., guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of third-degree murder; and not guilty of three counts of second-degree murder.

On Friday, the jury will begin the penalty phase, in which it will decide whether Mr. Colegrove will receive the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The penalty phase is expected to take two days, Bradford County Court Judge Maureen Beirne said. During the penalty phase, the prosecution will present evidence of different aggravating circumstances, and the defense will present evidence of mitigating circumstances.

The victims — Joseph Colegrove, 60; Marlene Colegrove, 56; and Michael Colegrove, 36 — were found dead in their home on Aug. 8, 2007. All three died from shotgun wounds to the head, according to the Bradford County Coroner’s Office.

In his closing argument to the jury on Wednesday, Mr. Barrett said there was “rock solid” evidence linking the homicides to a Mossberg shotgun that was confiscated from a vehicle in Steven Colegrove’s driveway in Deposit.

DNA analysis showed that Michael Colegrove’s blood was found on the gun, according to a state police forensics expert. And another state police forensics expert testified that, based on his analysis of markings on the gun and on the six spent shotgun shell casings found at the crime scene, those shell casings had been fired in that particular Mossberg shotgun.

The prosecution presented testimony that Mr. Colegrove didn’t get along with his family, that he had thrown out some of his clothing hours after the homicides had occurred, and that a bruise had formed on his right shoulder suggesting recoil action from a shotgun.

Defense attorneys argued that the expert witness who had said the shotgun shells matched the Mossberg shotgun was only stating his subjective opinion, and that there have been challenges to the method that police use to link shotgun shells to shotguns.

The defense also presented testimony that the family members with whom the victims had problems in the year or two before their deaths were Robert Colegrove and his wife Heather, and not Steven Colegrove. Robert Colegrove, who lives in Camptown, is Steven Colegrove’s brother. Joseph Colegrove was a barber in Laceyville, and his barbershop was a social gathering place for the community, residents have said.

He had 42 years’ experience with the Good Will Fire Company in Laceyville, including 13 as chief.

Marlene Colegrove was a bus driver with the Wyalusing Area School District, and was active in the ladies’ auxiliary of the fire company.

Michael Colegrove had a heart condition and lived with his parents, and he had served as a volunteer in two local elementary schools.

“They were the hub of this community,” Melissa Fisher, president of the ladies’ auxiliary of the fire company, said the day after the Colegroves’ bodies were discovered.

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2009/01/28/news/doc498113ef79ef9821245005.txt

[Jeff1857]

Steven Colegrove will spend the rest of his life in prison without possibility of parole.

That was the decision of a judge late Friday night, after the jury which convicted Colegrove of triple-murder, could not decide if he was to be given the death penalty or serve life   

On Wednesday, the jury did decide that he was guilty of the shotgun slayings of his mother, father, and brother.
 
On Friday, before it reached a impasse, jurors listened to arguments from the defense and the prosecution during the sentencing phase of the trial.  The prosecution wanted the death penalty.

The defense, arguing for life, brought to the stand several witnesses who  testified about Stephen's character and mental state. 
    Fox 40's Grace Charles who was at the courthouse reported on the nature of the closing arguments:
 
" The defense told the jury they would have to find, quote no speck of humanity in Steven Colegrove to give him the death penalty. Several people testified that Steven was a very good friend to them, and that also he's a model inmate while being held at the Bradford County Jail.
But the D.A. asked the jury to think about giving Steven Colegrove a life sentence, allowing him to quote, know life while he has given death."
 
That death being Steven Colegrove's murder of his mother Marlene, father Joe and Brother Michael.

http://www.wicz.com/news2005/viewarticle.asp?a=8161

[Michael]

Steven Colegrove and humanity in one sentence is a joke....

He made a good deal, killing 3 people and recieve LWOP.

Michael