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Roland
William STEELE
A.K.A.: "The Karate Killer"
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Kidnapping - Robbery
Number of victims: 3
Date of murder:
June 21,
1985
Date of birth: 1947
Victims profile: Lucille Horner,
88, Minnie Warwick, 86, and Sarah Knutz. 85
A 39-year-old karate expert from Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, Steele was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder, stemming from his brutal assaults upon elderly women in Washington County.
Steele apparently preferred live flesh to punching bags for workouts in the martial arts, selecting victims who were helpless to defend themselves. A jury deliberated for forty-five minutes before sentencing the karate killer to death.
Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia
of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans
Roland Steele, 38, was
convicted of 3 counts of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death for
the 1985 beating deaths of 88-year-old Lucille Horner, 86-year-old
Minnie Warwick and 85-year-old Sarah Knutz in East Washington, PA. They
were kidnapped from a parking lot, taken to a wooded area and beaten to
death, "karate-style."
Steele was formally sentenced to death
on March 25, 1988. On June 5, 1999, the state Supreme Court affirmed
those sentences. Steele's petition for post-conviction relief has been
pending in the Court of Common Pleas of Washington County since June
1996.
Execution Warrant Signed For Pa. Murder Convict
By Harold Hayes - KDKA.com
Apr 22, 2009
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has
signed a death warrant for Roland Steele.
Steele was in his 40s when an Erie
County jury, seated in Washington County, took just 35 minutes to
sentence him to death.
The date then was January 22, 1986.
The year before, he was arrested and
charged with kidnapping three elderly women from the parking lot of a
shopping center.
The bodies of 88-year-old Lucile
Horner, 86-year-old Minnie Warrick and 85-year-old Sarah Knutz were
found later in a tire dump in Cecil Township, Washington County.
Police say they were the victims of a
karate-style beating.
At the time, the defendant's mother
thought the jury rejected his claim he was a victim of mistaken identity,
based on race.
But the Washington County District
Attorney at the time, John Pettit, disagreed.
"The credit cards over by his
girlfriend's brother's home - there was just so much that it wasn't like
as if we were trying to convict somebody on an item or two of
circumstantial evidence," said Pettit in 1986.
"There was an overwhelming amount
coupled with the fact that the victim's hair was found on his clothing
and that's something that's very difficult to escape," he said.
Former Governor Tom Ridge also signed
a death warrant for Steele in 1999 but that was put on hold pending
appeals which ran out this month.
But in the shadow of the courthouse
where Steele was sentenced to death 23 years ago, some who remember the
case wonder what will happen next.
"I think it's a shame that it does
take that long," said John Cypher of Canonsburg. "I'm for the death
penalty. Unfortunately the way things are today with everyone's rights
and the way the legal system is, not surprised it took that long and
wouldn't be surprised if he outlives me."
Rendell set June 18th as the date for
Steele's execution.
Governor Rendell Signs Execution Warrant for Roland William Steele
PRNewswire-USNewswire
April 21, 2009
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Governor
Edward G. Rendell today signed an execution warrant
for
Roland William Steele, 62, who was sentenced to die
for beating to death three women in their eighties whom he had
abducted from a
Washington County shopping mall in
June 1985.
In
January 1986, Steele was convicted of three counts of
first-degree murder in the deaths of 88-year-old
Lucille Horner, 86-year-old
Minnie Warrick, and 85-year-old
Sarah Knutz. Steele was formally sentenced to death in
March 1988, and the state Supreme Court affirmed that
judgment in
June 1989.
A 1999 execution warrant issued by then-Governor
Tom Ridge was stayed by the
Washington County Court of Common Pleas pending the
outcome of a petition for post-conviction relief. The lower court denied
post-conviction relief, and the state Supreme Court affirmed that
judgment in
December 2008 and denied reargument in
March 2009, which lifted the stay of execution.
Steele's execution by lethal injection is set for
June 18. He is held at the State Correctional Institution
at
Greene.
Governor Rendell has now signed 86 death warrants.
