Posted on 03/23/2002 6:02:00 AM PST by NittanyLion
Man guilty of manslaughter in neighbor's slaying
By Gaiutra Bahadur
Inquirer Staff Writer
Paul Bellina lost his gamble on a jury today. The Upper Gwynedd homeowner, who pumped eight bullets into a drunken, naked neighbor he mistook for a burglar, now faces up to 20 years in prison after the jurors took just 90 minutes to convict him of voluntary manslaughter.
Had he not withdrawn a guilty plea in October, he would have faced a sentence of no more than six years.
The jury, brought in from Lancaster County due to pre-trial publicity, found Bellina, 53, guilty in the slaying of Craig Holtzman, 31, on Sept. 13, 2000.
After delivering their verdict, the jurors walked over to Holtzman's parents, Neil and Marion. Some hugged them. Others shook their hands, and still others wished them luck.
"It was pretty much all cut and dried," said one juror, who declined to give his name. He said that Bellina hurt himself on the witness stand by wavering on such details as when he first noticed that Holtzman was naked.
The Holtzmans, who are pursuing a civil suit against Bellina for wrongful death and negligence, said they were gratified by the verdict.
"We waited a long time for this," Neil Holtzman said. "The system has begun to speak and it will speak again. (But) it's not going to bring Craig back."
"This was not a way you had to treat your neighbor," Marion Holtzman told reporters.
Bellina, a former Navy corpsman, shot Craig Holtzman eight times _ once in the chest, once in each arm, twice in the back, and three times in the head, according to autopsy reports.
Holtzman, who was living in his parents' basement, had apparently gone outside to urinate in the predawn hours. On his way back, he stumbled next door into the wrong backyard.
The men lived in Gwynedale, a planned community of nearly identical townhouses, and Holtzman mistook the sliding glass door to Bellina's basement for his own. That set off a burglar alarm that awakened Bellina, who went downstairs carrying a 9 mm handgun.
Today, as Bellina was being led away by Sheriff's deputies, his girlfriend, Suzanne Powell, bolted from the courtroom, avoiding reporters, and left the building.
"I'm too upset. I can't talk," she said.
The couple sat side by side on the courtroom pews as the jury deliberated. Bellina, wearing a white, short-sleeved golfshirt, read Chicken Soup for the Veteran's Soul and Powell read Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul.
During the four-day trial, Bellina's attorney, Patrick J. McMenamin, cited his military record – he was wounded twice during the Vietnam War.
The lawyer also argued that Bellina acted as he did only to defend himself, his girlfriend and her daughter, who were in the house at the time.
"Why else own a gun," McMenamin asked the jury, made up largely of gun-owners, on Wednesday. "That's why you have it. For protection (when) somebody's in the house at 4:30 in the morning."
After the jury's verdict, McMenamin said his client had no regrets about withdrawing his guilty plea last fall. Under state sentencing guidelines, that plea would have made the maximum sentence 72 months.
"We had some hope, but the jury has spoken," McMenamin said.
Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Wendy Demchick-Alloy said that Bellina "wanted the opportunity to tell his story, and he had his trial." She had portrayed Bellina during the trial as a bully who took the law into his own hands.
"We don't disagree that he has an impressive war record," she said after the verdict. "That was thirty years ago. This is a very different man. . .. The evidence showed that he is a confrontational individual, that he is volatile."
During the trial, Demchick-Alloy emphasized that Holtzman never entered Bellina's house and was walking away when Bellina unlocked his door and pursued Holtzman into the yard.
The pathologist who conducted the autopsy, using five photos of the corpse, lingered on the path that each bullet carved through Holtzman's body. The county coroner, Halbert E. Fillinger, testified that marks around the edges of a gunshot wound on Holtzman's face indicated his head was already resting on the ground, on a rain-soaked bed of pachysandra, when the eighth and final shot hit him.
Leni
:-)
Leni
I recall one dude who always liked to whiz out of his third floor dorm room rather than walk down the hall to the bathroom.
Well...hehehe...not exactly. But in his own house, no matter how drunk, you'd think he'd find the bathroom. After a while you can find it in your sleep, practically. Now I'll admit that in a strange surrounding, I've seen other people (not me, of course) have some problems finding the toilet bowl... ;-)
At PSU, bicycle cops used to hide behind bushes waiting for partiers to urinate in people's yards, then jump out and nail them with a fine. Luckily I never got caught; I knew a guy who beat the risk by "taking a knee". He'd start walking quickly to get ahead of the group, then get down on one knee and just remain motionless (like that statue "The Thinker"). I'll leave the rest to imagination.
Well, for me it might depend on what the neighbor looks like. LOL.
A few days ago an FBI shooter shot an unarmed man in the face, a man that had done nothing. The FBI shooter will walk because "he thought his life was in danger". This shooter used excessive force, over reacted, he will not see one day behind bars. Yet the victim did nothing to instigate the shooting. He is ruined for life.
If just 1-2 shots are fired he probably walks. This conviction is based on shots 3-8, including those fired when the dead guy was evidently on the ground.
I agree, if your alarm goes off at 4:30 and you see someone trying to get into your house, you'd be within your rights to take some serious action.
I've heard that exact phraseology used as an explanation in other deadly force incidents.
It is certainly not a defense available to civilians. I recall that someone attempted to use an "urban hypervigilance" defense and that didn't work.
"Holtzman, who was living in his parents' basement... "
The now dead guy was living in his parents' basement. And still going out to get drunk at night. Maybe he went outside because [smiles] he didn't want to wake mom and dad by flushing the toilet in the house...
So, because this loser living in his parents' basement goes out and gets drunk, then can't use his parents' bathroom, an actual citizen, a home-owner living in his own home, a Vietnam vet, is going to jail.
I see the logic in the sentence, but I don't know that I agree. I know this sounds harsh, but the only thing the dead guy's death means is that some day he won't be appearing on the Springer show. At some point, we as a society may need to revamp the justice system to actually reward people for eliminating such losers from circulation. There are just too many worthless scum floating around in our society.
Mark W.
As Alpha Male, when I walk the dogs at night, I urinate on the lawn. Gotta to be the boss, you know.
People who are totally smashed sometimes find that the bathroom sink is a completely reasonable alternative to the urinal. The TV ads are right, judgement is the first thing to go.
As George Constanza says, "It's all PIPES!"
Well, I have had sorry experiences with neighbors drunken parties where they walked down the road and urinated in my yard--thankfully they were still wearing clothes.
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