Man acquitted today in New Castle murder

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — A jury took only about an hour to acquit a New Castle man of murder in a case that could have brought the death penalty.

Michael Roberts, 29, was acquitted of criminal homicide in the death of Danny Palumbo, 48, who investigators say was beaten with a bar stool in the basement of his East Long Avenue home in the city March 25, 2005.

Palumbo died the next day at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown, with head injuries so bad the officer who first saw him assumed he’d been shot in the face at point-blank range.

Police arrested Roberts in the killing about 14 months later after he was implicated in the crime. Two men testified during the seven-day-long trial that Roberts had admitted to them he killed Palumbo — one of those men said Roberts indicated he’d used the bar stool to do it.

But Roberts’ defense attorney, Lee Rothman of Pittsburgh, did what he could to discredit the witnesses, saying they received deals for reduced jail sentences in exchange for testimony that implicated Roberts.

He told the jury there was no way it could be certain beyond a reasonable doubt that those witnesses were credible.

For more information, see Thursday’s Vindicator or Vindy.com