As jury says death, Koliser smiles

The judge now must either affirm the death penalty or impose life in prison.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Martin L. Koliser Jr. stood with his hands in his pants pockets, smiling broadly, as his death sentence was pronounced.
"Thank you," the 30-year-old Boardman man said to the jury that had just decided he should die by lethal injection.
From his front-row seat in the courtroom gallery, Howard Hartzell watched in amazement.
"It could have just been a nervous reaction," Hartzell said later of Koliser's devil-may-care attitude. "Or maybe I'm giving him too much credit."
The two men's lives became entangled at 2:19 a.m. April 29. That's when Koliser got out of his car on West Federal Street, walked back to a police car that had stopped behind his own car, and fired three shots at point-blank range into the officer sitting behind the wheel.
The officer was Hartzell's son, Michael Hartzell, a 26-year-old Youngstown patrolman who was investigating a shooting two hours earlier in which Koliser was the suspect. He was killed by two gunshots to his head.
Convicted last week
Koliser was convicted last week of aggravated murder for killing Michael Hartzell, and attempted murder for the earlier shooting in which he shot Donell Rowe once in the chest outside the Casaloma Gardens bar on Mahoning Avenue.
The same jury recommended Wednesday that Koliser be executed for killing Hartzell rather than being sentenced to life in prison. The panel deliberated three hours before returning with its decision.
It could have opted for life imprisonment with no possibility of parole, or life imprisonment with parole eligibility after Koliser serves at least either 25 or 30 years.
None of the jurors looked at Koliser as they filed into the courtroom or as the judge read their verdict forms. Only one, a tall man who'd sat in the back row, cast a glance at him as they filed out of the room.
Jurors could not decide whether there were any mitigating factors from Koliser's background that might have outweighed the aggravating circumstances of his crimes because his lawyers did not present any evidence during a mitigation hearing Wednesday.
Defense attorneys William J. Mooney and Jerry McHenry declined to comment after Wednesday's verdict.
Final sentencing set
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who presided over the trial, now must decide whether to affirm the jury's recommendation or to impose one of the prison options. He has set final sentencing for 9 a.m. Friday.
"I'm glad it was quick," Howard Hartzell said of the jury's swift deliberation. "A ton is off our shoulders now. The death penalty is very, very severe, but I think justice was served."
The courtroom was filled with Hartzell's family, friends and police department colleagues. There was no reaction from anyone inside the courtroom; the judge had cautioned all spectators against making any emotional outbursts.
Afterward, there were tears, hugs and soft words spoken in the hall outside the courtroom.
Kevin Mercer, a city police sergeant and a friend of Michael Hartzell's, said the decision brings relief and closure to the department. Mercer was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene the night of the shooting.
While the memory of what he saw when he looked into Hartzell's car will remain with him forever, Mercer said it hasn't changed the way he approaches his job.
"You can't let it," he said. "We're professionals. We've got to come to work and do our job every day. We took an oath to the people, to the community, and to the department."
Mercer said the jury's recommendation of the death penalty sends a strong message that the community stands behinds its safety forces.
"It makes a statement that you can't commit these types of crimes and expect to get away with it," he said. "The community is not going to tolerate it."
Prosecutor Paul Gains, himself a former city policeman, said he was gratified by the jury's decision.
"This jury has performed the most difficult function in the judicial system," he said.
Koliser becomes the first person from Mahoning County to be recommended for the death penalty since Scott Group, who was sent to death row in April 1999.
Group, 39, of Elm Street, was convicted of murdering Robert Lozier of Austintown in his West Rayen Avenue bar in 1997, and wounding Lozier's wife, Sandra.
bjackson@vindy.com