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Sentence cut in Kaluza shooting
Trial against Hattie Gilbert and Taran Helms
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Suspects found guilty in the March 24 robbery and shooting of KFC manager Joseph Kaluza
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Joseph Kaluza
By Peter Milliken
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
Taran Helms, the man who shot KFC manager Joe Kaluza in the neck, will leave prison in middle age, not old age, the 7th District Court of Appeals has ruled.
In a 2-1 decision released Wednesday, the appeals panel shaved 17 years off Helms’ 50-year prison term for the crimes he committed in the March 24, 2008, shooting that paralyzed Kaluza from the neck down. The panel, however, upheld all of Helms’ convictions.
In September 2008, a jury convicted Helms, 25, of East Judson Avenue, of attempted murder, felonious assault, aggravated robbery and kidnapping, with firearm specifications.
Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court then imposed maximum consecutive sentences totaling 50 years on Helms and his accomplice, Hattie Gilbert, 22, also of East Judson Avenue.
The appeals court ruled Judge Franken should have merged Helms’ attempted murder and felonious- assault convictions for sentencing purposes because Helms committed those crimes simultaneously.
The appeals court also ruled that because Helms committed all his crimes with the goal of robbing Kaluza, the three-year gun specifications attached to each crime should merge into a single three-year gun specification.
Those mergers would reduce the 50-year sentence to 33 years, allowing Helms to leave prison at age 55 instead of 72. Helms is at the Trumbull Correctional Institution.
The appeals court directed Judge Lou A. D’Apolito, successor to Judge Franken, to resentence Helms in accordance with its ruling.
The majority opinion was written by Judge Mary DeGenaro, with Judge Joseph J. Vukovich concurring.
In her dissenting opinion, Judge Cheryl L. Waite wrote that she favored reducing Helms’ prison time from 50 to 41 years by merging the gun specifications because all the crimes “were part of one continuous overall plan to rob the victim.”
However, Judge Waite would not have merged the attempted-murder and felonious-assault sentences because she said the evidence supports the two separate charges.
Gilbert’s appeal is still pending before the 7th District Court of Appeals. Gilbert is at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.