Koliser: Let me die

By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Martin L. Koliser Jr. wants to give up his life without a fight.
Convicted and sentenced to death for killing a Youngstown policeman, Koliser said he doesn't want courts and lawyers fighting to block his execution, which is scheduled for March 9.
"I didn't show no mercy. I don't expect no mercy. I don't want no mercy," Koliser said Friday to Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
The 30-year-old Boardman man shot Patrolman Michael Hartzell three times at point-blank range as Hartzell sat in his stopped cruiser just before 2:30 a.m. April 29. One shot was stopped by Hartzell's bulletproof vest, but two struck his head, killing him instantly.
Grounds for death
Intentionally killing a police officer in the line of duty is grounds for the death penalty.
Under Ohio law, people who are sentenced to the death penalty are granted an automatic appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. It's a mandatory procedure that cannot be waived or denied.
Koliser said in court Friday that he'll go along with that appeal because he has no choice. He also made it clear that if the appeal is not successful, that's the end of the road for him.
"I don't want no lawyers representing me. I don't want any appeals," Koliser said.
The law allows death-row inmates to waive their post-Supreme Court appeals, but first requires that they be evaluated to ensure that they are mentally competent to make such a decision.
Already evaluated
Koliser already has been evaluated by two doctors who deemed him competent to waive his right to present mitigating evidence at trial that might have persuaded jurors to recommend a prison sentence instead of the death penalty.
"The scariest thing about Martin Koliser is that, within a few degrees, he's as normal as anybody else," said assistant prosecutor Jay Macejko. "He's not insane. That is the most petrifying thing about all of this."
Koliser said he is prepared to die, and wants to spend as little time as possible behind bars waiting for that day to arrive.
"I'm not sitting there like that," he said.
Koliser told the judge that he hates society and no longer wants to be a part of it.
"You are unfit to live in our society," Judge Krichbaum told him before imposing the sentence. "Death is the only penalty you deserve."
Koliser expressed no remorse for killing Hartzell or for an earlier shooting in which he tried unsuccessfully to kill 23-year-old South Side resident Donell Rowe by shooting him in the chest.
Koliser was on the run from authorities for Rowe's shooting when he killed Hartzell. He saw the police car behind him and feared he was going to be arrested for the shooting, which happened around 12:30 a.m. April 29 at the Casaloma Gardens bar on Mahoning Avenue.
Motive for shooting
Having already been to prison twice before, Koliser wrote in letters to family members that he was not going to go back. That's why he got out of his car on West Federal Street, walked back toward Hartzell's cruiser and squeezed off three rapid-fired shots into the driver's window.
Koliser was captured the next day in a motel room in Pinellas County, Fla., where he had fled just hours after the shootings. In court Friday, Koliser said he would have killed others if necessary to avoid capture and prosecution for the Rowe shooting.
"I'm glad they caught me," he said.
With shackles dangling from his wrists and ankles, Koliser described himself as a man who hates everyone, and who sees "everything in life as a contradiction."
He expressed that same hatred and rage in several letters he wrote to family members after the shootings, before he was captured.
"I'm not sorry for what I did," he wrote in a letter to his 9-year-old son. "I'm a hateful person ... my hate derives from abuse ... I hate."
His hatred is tempered, though, by tenderness and affection for his family.
"I love you. You are always in my heart," he wrote to his son.
He begins a letter to his father by saying, "You failed me for my whole life," but later writes, "I love you and the family."
He expressed remorse for bringing pain to his mother, and sorrow for not being around to help rear his son.
"I might have been a horrible husband, but as a father I always tried my best to be all I could be," he wrote to his ex-wife.
Dismissing some charges
Prosecutor Paul Gains said he will dismiss charges of escape and illegal possession of a firearm that also were pending against Koliser.
The charges were filed at the same time as the aggravated murder and attempted murder charges, but Koliser opted to waive his right to a jury trial and instead have those charges heard and decided by the judge after the murder trial was finished.
Koliser could have been sentenced to an additional 11 years in prison if convicted of the escape and weapon charges, but Gains said it's pointless since Koliser already is sentenced to death row.
He said the state can refile those charges within six years if necessary.
bjackson@vindy.com