KOS SLAYING Witnesses are readied

Witnesses will identify the knife used in the killing, prosecutors say.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Witnesses who say they heard Perry Ricciardi and David Garvey talk about wanting to kidnap, rape and kill a young woman are expected to testify at their upcoming trials.
Judge Dominick Motto of Lawrence County Common Pleas Court granted prosecutors the authority to call 16 witnesses from Ohio for the trials, expected to begin sometime this fall.
Prosecutors must be given special permission from a judge when they intend to call out-of-state witnesses at a trial.
Ricciardi, 22, and Garvey, 21, both of Struthers, could face the death penalty if convicted in the Oct. 8, 2000, stabbing death of Shannon Leigh Kos, 12, of Youngstown. They are each charged with criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, criminal conspiracy to commit rape and abuse of a corpse.
The charges
Police contend that Ricciardi, Garvey and William Monday, 23, of Struthers, picked Shannon up at a coin-operated laundry near her home and took her to a spot in Mahoning Township, Lawrence County, that they called "zombie land." Police say they tried to rape her, stabbed her, then later went back and tried to burn her body.
Monday pleaded guilty to murder charges earlier this year in exchange for a sentence of life in prison.
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Minett told the judge that the Ohio witnesses will have to be available during a 10-day period during the trial. A trial date has not been set.
Minett said it will likely take five days to pick a jury and a few more days for police testimony before any of the Ohio residents are called to the stand.
Some witnesses are expected to corroborate things the suspects told police, and others will show inconsistencies in those statements, Minett said.
Several of the Ohio witnesses are expected to identify the knife used in the stabbing as belonging to one of the men and talk about seeing the men the day of the killing, the assistant district attorney added.