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New trial requested for Kaluza shooting defendant
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
Photo
Taran Helms on trial for the robbery of Joseph Kaluza
The trial of Taran Helms in the shooting that paralyzed KFC manager Joe Kaluza just before he was robbed should have been moved to another county due to excessive pretrial publicity, Helms’ lawyer told the 7th District Court of Appeals.
“The press coverage continued on up to the trial ... and re-emerged when the trial started,” Helms’ lawyer, Gary L. Van Brocklin, told the three-judge panel during oral arguments Wednesday.
The confession of co-defendant Hattie Gilbert and the Western Reserve Transit Authority bus video of the staged crash that preceded the March 24, 2008, shooting and robbery received repeated media coverage, Van Brocklin noted.
Many jurors “had to have seen more than they said they saw” concerning the case when they were interviewed during jury selection, Van Brocklin said. “It’s impossible not to have heard of this case in this county,” said Van Brocklin, who called for reversal of Helms’ conviction and a new trial.
Ralph Rivera, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, acknowledged that media coverage of the case was extensive, but he cited U.S. and Ohio Supreme Court rulings that extensive coverage alone is not enough to force a change of trial location.
The individual questioning of potential trial jurors by then-Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and the prosecuting and defense lawyers “was more extensive than in most death-penalty cases,” Rivera said.
Seven of the 10 prospective jurors who said they never heard of the Kaluza case ended up among the 12 actual trial jurors, Rivera observed.
“If somebody said that they didn’t hear of this trial, they’d almost be too dumb to be on the jury, or they’re fabricating,” interrupted Judge Joseph J. Vukovich.
The jury convicted Helms of attempted murder, felonious assault, aggravated robbery and kidnapping, all with gun specifications, and it convicted Gilbert of complicity to all of the same charges.
Judge Franken sentenced Helms and Gilbert to maximum consecutive sentences totaling 50 years in prison.
At the very least, Van Brocklin said Helms should be resentenced, with the attempted-murder and felonious-assault charges merging together, and the aggravated-robbery and kidnapping charges merging together, and the gun specifications merging together, because Van Brocklin said the charges stem from a single incident.
If the charges were to merge in that manner, Helms would get no more than 23 years in prison.
Rivera said, however, the shooting of Kaluza in his neck, the kidnapping of Kaluza by pushing his car 300 feet from the South Avenue crash site onto a side street and the robbery of the KFC bank bag containing $300 should be viewed as separate crimes eligible for separate and consecutive sentences.
Judge Vukovich said he and Judges Cheryl L. Waite and Mary DeGenaro would take the case under advisement.