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Sister aims to keep attackers in prison
Community urged to send letters opposing early release of Kaluza assailants
NORTH LIMA
Joseph Kaluza was never the same after he was assaulted by two people in March 2008 and permanently paralyzed from the neck down, said his sister, Anna Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald told The Vindicator she wants the community’s help in keeping his assailants in prison.
Hattie Gilbert, 31, and Taran Helms, 33, both of Youngstown, are set to be released from prison in 2049. They were convicted and sentenced in 2008 for robbing and attempting to kill Kaluza, a manager at the city’s South Side Kentucky Fried Chicken, while he was on his way to deposit $300 at a bank.
Gilbert, set to be released from prison at more than 60 years old, has applied to the Ohio Parole Board seeking clemency on her 41-year sentence.
A “frustrated and angry” Fitzgerald is now urging those who knew Kaluza or were touched by his story to pen letters to parole board officials opposing Gilbert’s early release. The Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office has already submitted one such letter.
“Joe had a life sentence and actually lost his life from the actions that she took,” said Fitzgerald, of North Lima. “She destroyed a family ... literally ... and she deserves to serve out her term.”
The parole board has already reviewed Gilbert’s application but has not yet set a hearing date, said Sara French, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spokeswoman. The board has requested a parole officer review Gilbert’s case to obtain more information, she added.
Once the review is approved, the board will decide whether to favor Gilbert’s plea and forward the file to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who will grant or deny clemency.
The bullet that paralyzed Kaluza – purchased by Gilbert and fired by Helms – changed the lives of Kaluza and his family long after he returned home after five months in the hospital, his relatives said.
“With two special-needs children at home and a wife to care for, things were not easy,” reads a post by Fitzgerald’s son, Jason, on the Facebook group page “Continue Justice for Joe Kaluza.”
“As I watched him as I grew I saw a man who always put others first and showed me the meaning of supporting a family,” Jason Fitzgerald wrote to the parole board. “Joe Kaluza was an honest, hard-working man with two special needs children. ... Through all the ups and downs of his life, he never complained. He loved both of his children and his wife with all his heart.”
Anna Fitzgerald told the parole board, “Joe was the rock of the family and the breadwinner as his wife [Lisa] did not work a lot so she could be home with the kids.”
Kaluza died in 2015 at age 49 after numerous illnesses and hospitalizations. His wife, Lisa, died two years prior.
Letters may be addressed to Ms. Michelle Franko PBPO, Trumbull Correctional Institution, 5701 Burnett Road, Leavittsburg, OH 44430. Emails may be sent to michelle.franko@odrc.state.oh.us.
All correspondence should contain the header: Application for Executive Clemency of Hattie Gilbert, Inmate No. WO 73108, D/O/B 12/23/87, Mahoning County Case No. 2008 CR 382 A.
“The callousness demonstrated by Hattie Gilbert in preparing and planning this horrendous act and her participation in the act is unconscionable, and justice requires that she serves the entire term of imprisonment,” Jason Fitzgerald wrote. “With Joe being gone, we can find some comfort in knowing the people who did this to him are locked away.”