By BOB JACKSON

By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Martin L. Koliser Jr. says he has no remorse for killing a police officer -- and no respect for the system that's trying him in a court of law, according to a letter he wrote to his sister that was read to the jury today.
During his trial, he slept, stared, glared and laughed as he listened to other people tell jurors that he gunned down a policeman and shot another man in the chest.
Then he had nothing to say in his own defense.
Koliser, 30, of Boardman, did not testify in his trial on charges of aggravated murder and attempted murder. His lawyers chose to present no witnesses, opting to allow jurors in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to decide Koliser's guilt or innocence based solely on prosecution witnesses.
During closing arguments this morning, Prosecutor Paul Gains read to jurors excerpts from a letter Koliser wrote to his sister while he was hiding in Florida. In the letter, Koliser tells his sister that he shot a black man outside a bar and that he shot a police officer shortly afterward.
"I pulled over, got out of the car and blew his head off," Koliser wrote in the letter, referring to the killing of Youngstown Patrolman Michael Hartzell.
"I feel no guilt, only remorse that my life has to end so short. I hate society's laws."
Ambush recounted
In a fiery, passionate argument, Gains -- a former Youngstown police officer -- recounted for the jurors how Koliser ambushed Hartzell in his police car.
At one point, Koliser smiled widely then laughed to himself as he listened to Gains tell how proud Koliser was of what he'd done.
Defense attorney Jerry McHenry urged jurors to not get caught up in the high emotion of the case and to judge the facts with open minds. He said they should look at prosecution witnesses with skeptical eyes.
Each side had up to one hour to present its closing arguments, and the instructions were to take about an hour.
If jurors are unable to reach a verdict today, they will be sequestered for the night at an undisclosed location and resume deliberating Friday.
Reason for trial
Koliser has been on trial in the killing of 26-year-old Hartzell around 2:20 a.m. April 29, and in the wounding of 23-year-old Donell Rowe of Youngstown with a gunshot to the chest two hours earlier.
Hartzell was shot once in the chest and twice in the head as he sat in his police car on West Federal Street. Rowe was shot outside the Casaloma Gardens bar on Mahoning Avenue.
Hartzell's parents, fiance & eacute; and other relatives have sat in the front row of the packed courtroom throughout the trial, often cringing and crying softly as they listened to graphic testimony about his injuries.
The aggravated-murder charge has three death-penalty specifications attached to it. If Koliser is convicted of any of them, he could then face the death penalty for Hartzell's killing.
A second trial would then be held in which the same jurors must recommend whether Koliser is sentenced to death or to life in prison.
Judge Krichbaum said that phase of the trial, if necessary, would begin in the middle of next week at the soonest, depending on how much time lawyers need to prepare. It would probably last about two days.
The judge cautioned jurors this morning to not be concerned about the penalty phase at this point, and said their only job for now is to consider Koliser's guilt or innocence.
Testimony in the first phase of the trial ended late Wednesday morning, which was much faster than the week prosecutors had estimated it would take to present their case. Prosecutor Paul Gains and assistant prosecutor Jay Macejko churned through 25 witnesses in 2 1/2 days, with minimal opposition from the defense.
Defense attorneys William J. Mooney and McHenry did not cross-examine most of the state's witnesses and had only a few questions for those they did cross-examine.
Under Ohio law, McHenry said, a criminal defendant is considered innocent until proved guilty. The burden is on the state to prove guilt. The defense is not required to put on a case.
The state's final witness was Dr. Dorothy Dean, a forensic pathologist from Franklin County, who performed the autopsy on Hartzell. She said either of the two head wounds inflicted on Hartzell could have killed him, though it's impossible to tell which shot was fired first.