Jurors decide against death sentence for Washington man
Observer-Reporter
Observer-Reporter
Brandon Wolowski is escorted out of Washington County Courthouse in this photo from March 2019.
Holly Tonini/For the Observer-Reporter
Attorney Noah Geary talks about Brandon Wolowski’s case in this file photo from March 2019.
Jurors chose not to return a death sentence against a former Washington man for a homicide he was found guilty of committing six years ago in the city’s West End.
The Washington County jury of six men and six women deliberated for about three hours Tuesday before they instead sentenced Brandon Wolowski, 24, to life without parole.
He was convicted last week of the first-degree murder of Matthew Mathias, 37, during a robbery attempt at Mathias’ house Jan. 8, 2013. Jurors also found he shot Mathias’ girlfriend, Michelle Powell, who survived and testified for prosecutors.
Deputy District Attorney Leslie Ridge called jurors’ decision last week to find Wolowski guilty the correct one.
“And we respect their decision in the penalty,” she added.
District Attorney Gene Vittone said he was proud of the work of Ridge and her co-counsel, Deputy District Attorney Jason Walsh.
Judge John DiSalle presided over both phases of the trial.
Before it started, Wolowski was offered a plea deal with a proposed sentence of 30 to 60 years in prison.
Noah Geary, one of Wolowski’s court-appointed attorneys, called the sentence “understandable.”
“Who’s going to execute an 18-year-old kid with fetal alcohol syndrome, which is brain damage?” Geary said, referring to his client’s age when he committed the murder. “As far as the guilty verdict, that was no surprise, either, in light of the judge’s rulings. We were not permitted to challenge the confession.”
The recording of Wolowski’s 32-minute account of the robbery-shooting, which he made to police early the following morning, was played for jurors at one point during the trial.
Jurors were allowed to consider previous evidence in deciding the sentence. The prosecution’s sole witness during the penalty phase was Mathias’ father, Alvin, who gave a brief statement about the murder’s affect on him and his family.
The defense called witnesses who testified about Wolowski’s traumatic childhood, which began when he weighed 4 pounds 5 ounces at birth and was diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome. Jurors also heard testimony about how he’d cared for his young daughter, now 6, and her mother before his arrest.
During her closing argument, Ridge reiterated events from the night of Mathias’ murder. She said Wolowski had shot Mathias in the back and Powell in the face after resolving to steal guns Mathias was keeping in the house.
“Not all murders are subject to the death penalty,” Ridge concluded. “But this one is, and sometimes life in prison isn’t enough.”
The penalty phase of the trial started Friday and continued on Monday and Tuesday.
DiSalle will set a hearing for sometime in the next 90 days to sentence Wolowski on the remaining charges – attempted homicide, aggravated assault and robbery – on which jurors also convicted Wolowski.
Geary said he won’t be able to appeal the verdict until after that proceeding. Among “many other errors by the trial judge,” Geary said he plans to argue that he was stopped from introducing a call placed to 911 the night of the shooting into evidence. Geary said Powell identified Mathias as the person who’d shot her during that call.
He also contended DiSalle should have allowed testimony concerning Wolowski’s fetal alcohol syndrome diagnosis and his placement in special education classes during his schooling – evidence the judge also barred. Geary posited this information would have persuaded jurors to give his client’s confession “little to no weight.”
“Fundamental criminal law in any case where there’s a confession – the jury shall consider the intelligence of the accused, the education and the mental capacity of the defendant,” Geary said.
During the defense’s closing, attorney Thomas N. Farrell told jurors that Wolowski’s crime was “not a planned murder” but “a planned robbery that went awry.”
“There was no one who testified that he planned to kill these people,” Farrell said. “He planned to rob them.”