Koliser has nothing to say in his defense

By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Martin L. Koliser Jr. slept, smiled, stared, glared and scribbled 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.
Jurors were to hear closing arguments from lawyers this morning, receive instructions of law from Judge R. Scott Krichbaum and then begin deliberating. 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 Youngstown Patrolman Michael Hartzell around 2:20 a.m. April 29, and in the wounding 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.
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 21/2 days, with minimal opposition from the defense.
Strategy of defense
Defense attorneys William J. Mooney and Jerry 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, 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 and which one actually killed him.
Both shots passed through Hartzell's brain, causing extensive damage, she said. His death was most likely instant.
The shot to Hartzell's chest was stopped by a bulletproof vest he was wearing. Dean said there was a large bruise on Hartzell's chest where the bullet hit him.
Prosecutors also presented several witnesses during the trial who testified that Koliser had admitted to them that he'd shot Rowe and Hartzell and that he has no remorse.
Prosecutors also introduced letters, purported to have been written by Koliser, which contained confessions of the shootings. None of the letters was read aloud for jurors, though.
bjackson@vindy.com