By BOB JACKSON

By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Martin L. Koliser Jr. was to find out today whether he'll spend the rest of his life on death row.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court was to rule whether the death sentence recommended Wednesday by a jury will be carried out, or whether Koliser should instead be sentenced to life in prison.
Koliser, 30, of Boardman, was convicted last week of aggravated murder for killing Youngstown Patrolman Michael Hartzell as the officer sat in his cruiser just before 2:20 a.m. April 29.
Hartzell, 26, was investigating a shooting some two hours earlier outside the Casaloma Gardens bar on Mahoning Avenue, in which Koliser was the suspect. He had stopped behind Koliser's car at a traffic light at West Federal Street and Vindicator Square.
Witnesses said Koliser got out of his car with a gun in his hand, walked quickly back to the cruiser and fired three shots through the driver's window, two of them fatally striking Hartzell in the head.
A third shot hit Hartzell in the chest but was stopped by his bulletproof vest.
Attempted murder
Koliser also was convicted of attempted murder for the Casaloma Gardens shooting, in which he fired one shot into Donell Rowe's chest after the two had argued. Rowe, 23, of East Avondale Avenue, was hospitalized for 16 days but survived.
The same jury that convicted Koliser last week of shooting Hartzell and Rowe deliberated just three hours Wednesday before recommending that he die by lethal injection. The panel could have opted instead that he be imprisoned for life with no chance of parole, or that he be given life in prison with parole eligibility after serving at least 25 or 30 years.
When a jury recommends the death penalty, Ohio law requires the trial judge to independently review the evidence and determine whether it is an appropriate punishment. The judge then has the choice of either affirming the death sentence or imposing one of the prison options.
If the jury had recommended life in prison, the law does not allow the judge to overrule it and impose the death penalty.
No defense witnesses
Koliser's attorneys, William J. Mooney and Jerry McHenry, called no witnesses in Koliser's defense during the trial, and did not call witnesses during Wednesday's mitigation hearing because Koliser did not want them to put on a defense.
Mooney and McHenry are from the Ohio Public Defender's Office in Columbus. They were appointed to represent Koliser at taxpayers' expense. & uml;
In a memo to all turn commanders, Youngstown Police Chief Robert E. Bush Jr. conveyed Judge Krichbaum's invitation to all police officers for today's sentencing. Unlike during the trial, officers were permitted to attend today in uniform, including weapons.
bjackson@vindy.com