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Decision to seek death penalty leaves dearth of attorneys for homicide suspect
Washington County has run out of attorneys who are qualified to be appointed to represent a Webster man charged with killing a retired Carroll Township police chief and his wife.
So court officials will turn to Allegheny County to find an attorney qualified to try death penalty cases to represent 25-year-old Gerald Louis Szakal Jr.
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At the arraignment, Chief Assistant District Attorney Craig McKay submitted the documents indicating that Szakal will be prosecuted under aggravating circumstances and that the death penalty will be sought against him.
Following a preliminary hearing in March, District Attorney Steven Toprani said he would be invoking the death penalty, but Toprani's intentions were not made official until Tuesday.
According to O'Dell Seneca, the county has only one attorney, Dennis Paluso, who is certified to try a death penalty case. And she pointed out that Paluso has already been appointed to represent another defendant in a separate death penalty case.
While the public defender's office has attorneys certified to try death penalty cases, Public Defender Glenn Alterio said there was a conflict preventing his office from representing Szakal. Alterio said his office initially represented one of Szakal's co-defendants, Gregory M. Carpenter, 52, of Charleroi, before a private attorney was hired to defend him in the case.
Court-appointed attorney Erin Dickerson has represented Szakal since the preliminary hearing. However, O'Dell Seneca indicated that Dickerson would no longer be able to provide legal advice to Szakal because she is not certified to try a capital case.
"I'm not exactly sure of my status," said Dickerson following the arraignment. "I guess I will continue to represent him until a new attorney is appointed."
Toprani, who did not attend the court proceeding but spoke afterward, said he believed Dickerson's role was immediately defunct.
"It's my understanding that Ms. Dickerson is off the case," he said.
Meanwhile, officials are looking to appoint a new attorney to represent Szakal as soon as possible in order to make a 30-day deadline for the filing of various motions on his part.
Szakal, Carpenter and two other men are charged in connection with the Springer murders and subsequent robbery of their home.
Szakal allegedly planned the murders and robbery on Feb. 29 with Justin J. Welch, 21, and Carpenter at the men's Charleroi home. Tecko Tartt, 21, of Donora, is accused selling Szakal a stolen .22-caliber handgun that was used in the murders.
Following the murders, Szakal allegedly drove from the Springer home to meet with the three other men to divide the robbery proceeds of $6,752 and an undetermined amount of jewelry. The Springers were precious-metals dealers. Szakal spent his share of the proceeds before being picked up by police on separate charges that he stole about $17,000 in coins and jewelry from his mother. Shortly after his arrest, police said, Szakal confessed to the Springer murders.
All four men are being held without bond in Washington County Jail, but Szakal has been housed in the jail's special housing unit since his arrest.
According to Dickerson, Szakal has had no reported violations to cause his being held in the SHU. And she told O'Dell Seneca that jail officials said Szakal was only in the SHU because they didn't want to house him on the same floor as his co-defendants.
"I'm asking that he be moved to another facility so he's not in the SHU," Dickerson said. "He's been there for 52 days."
The judge and McKay agreed to have Szakal moved to another county facility to await trial.
