Sometimes the punishment doesn’t fit the crime
Sometimes the punishment doesn’t fit the crime
In the case of the brutal assault on Youngtown restaurant manager Joseph Kaluza, the punishment can’t possibly fit the crime.
On March 23, Kaluza was just one of millions of hard working guys, trying to do the best for his family, which includes a wife and two children.
He managed the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on South Avenue and on Monday, March 24, the day after Easter, Kaluza’s life and those of his loved ones were changed forever. As he was driving to the bank with the holiday receipts of only a few hundred dollars, he was waylaid by Taran Helms, 23, of West Hylda Avenue, and Hattie Gilbert, 20. Gilbert hit his car to get him to stop. Helms robbed him, shot him and left him for dead.
Kaluza, who spent months in the hospital and rehabilitation, is paralyzed from the neck down. He provided a new definition of bravery as he testified from a wheelchair, helping to convict his attackers. The evidence was overwhelming. In addition to Kaluza’s testimony, a camera on a WRTA bus captured video of the phony accident, and DNA evidence tied Helms to the robbery and shooting.
It took a jury of six men and six women less than four hours to find Helms guilty of attempted murder, felonious assault, aggravated robbery and kidnapping — all with firearm specifications — and Gilbert guilty of complicity in all those charges.
More lives changed
Now two more lives will never be the same. The difference is that Helms and Gilbert have earned everything they have coming to them. Members of the Kaluza family are innocents dragged into a tragedy that never had to be. Most people can’t comprehend the idea of planning the murder of another person for any amount of money, much less for a few hundred dollars. Any person who could plan and execute such an attack should forfeit the right to live in a free society — ever again.
The two face as many as 50 years in prison. The Youngstown Police Department can be proud of the work it did and the Mahoning County prosecutor’s office handled the case well. It properly resisted any temptation to reach a plea agreement with the defendants. Given the evidence, accepting anything less than a plea to all counts would have been a travesty of justice.
Helms and Gilbert should have nothing to look forward to except to spend every day for the next five decades in prison.
The convictions and next week’s sentencing will give the family some sense of closure and clear the way for them to get on with their lives. The community has opened its heart to the Kaluza family, and it should continue to keep the family in mind and be ready to help if called upon again.
And the community will have to be alert years from now when Helms and Gilbert become eligible for parole.
It will be up to ordinary people to tell the parole board that they remember the callousness of Joseph Kaluza’s attackers They will have to remember this was not only a crime against Kaluza, but an insult to the community. Two people decided that a decent man’s life was worth less to them than a few hundred dollars and acted on that belief with utter disregard for the consequences.
The only way Gilbert or Helms should ever walk the streets again is if they manage to survive 50 years behind bars.