3 slain Pittsburgh officers to lie in state

By DAN NEPHIN, Associated Press – Mon Apr 6, 10:48 am ET

PITTSBURGH – The bodies of three slain Pittsburgh police officers will lie in state at a downtown municipal building, city officials announced Monday.

The viewing at the City-County Building will begin Wednesday afternoon for officers Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo II. A memorial service will be held Thursday at an arena on the University of Pittsburgh Campus.

Richard Poplawski, 23, was wearing a bulletproof vest when he opened fire on the officers who were responding to a domestic disturbance call Saturday, turning a quiet Pittsburgh street into a battlefield, police said.

The 911 call that brought Sciullo and Mayhle to the home where they were ambushed on Saturday, and where Kelly was later killed during a four-hour siege, was precipitated by a fight between the gunman and his mother over a dog urinating in the house.

Thursday’s memorial will also serve as the funeral service for 41-year-old Officer Eric Kelly, who will be buried immediately afterward.

Separate funeral services are set for Mayhle and Sciullo.

The argument between Margaret and Richard Poplawski escalated to the point that she threatened to kick him out and she called police to do it, according to a 12-page criminal complaint and affidavit filed late Saturday.

When Sciullo and Mayhle arrived, Margaret Poplawski opened the door and told them to come in and take her son, apparently unaware he was standing behind her with a rifle, the affidavit said. Hearing gunshots, she spun around to see her son with the gun and ran to the basement.

The mother told police her son had been stockpiling guns and ammunition “because he believed that as a result of economic collapse, the police were no longer able to protect society,” the affidavit said.

Autopsies show Sciullo, 37, died of wounds to the head and torso. Mayhle, 29, was shot in the head.

A witness awakened by two gunshots told investigators of seeing the gunman standing in the home’s front doorway and firing two to three shots into one officer who was already down. Sciullo was later found dead in the home’s living room, and Mayhle near the front stoop, police said.

Kelly, 41, was killed as he arrived to assist the first two officers. Kelly was in uniform but on his way home when he responded and was gunned down in the street.

Kelly’s radio call for help summoned other officers, including a SWAT team. The ensuing standoff included a gun battle in which police say Richard Poplawski tried to kill other officers.

Poplawski is charged with three counts of criminal homicide and nine counts of attempted homicide — one each for the eight officers who were shot at in an armored SWAT vehicle, plus a ninth who was shot in the hand as he tried to help Kelly.

A district judge arraigned Poplawski at a hospital. It was not immediately clear if Poplawski had an attorney.

 

Suspended Pa. trooper denies killing dentist

From the Associated Press via Yahoo! News

March 18, 2009

INDIANA, Pa. – A suspended Pennsylvania state trooper denied killing a dentist who was divorcing the lawman’s live-in girlfriend and testified Wednesday that he was only joking when he told colleagues he wished for the man’s death.

“I never made a threat with the intention of carrying it out,” Kevin Foley said during questioning by the prosecution at his trial.

Foley, 43, has been on unpaid suspension since he was arrested in September 2007 in the slaying of Blairsville dentist Dr. John Yelenic, 39. An Indiana County jury was expected to hear closing arguments and begin deliberating later Wednesday.

Yelenic was found dead on April 13, 2006, a day before he was to sign the final divorce papers from his wife, Michele. The couple’s separation was so rancorous that Yelenic’s attorney asked a judge to issue a posthumous divorced decree — saying Yelenic would have wanted it. The judge refused, saying she couldn’t legally end a marriage that ended with Yelenic’s death.

A pathologist found that Yelenic was sliced with a knife and died of blood loss after his head was forced through a window, causing even more cuts.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Anthony Krastek contends Foley killed Yelenic while on his way home from playing in a pickup hockey game.

On Wednesday, Krastek questioned Foley about testimony by other troopers who said he talked about wishing for Yelenic’s death. One trooper testified that Foley asked for his help to kill Yelenic.

Foley acknowledged that he didn’t like Yelenic, but said he was a practical joker and commented in jest.

“Is it funny when you asked … that you wanted help killing John Yelenic?” Krastek said. “What’s so funny about that? Tell me the joke.”

“There isn’t any joke,” Foley replied. “It’s just my personality, my behavior.”

Under earlier questioning by his defense attorney, Richard Galloway, Foley said he was innocent.

Krastek earlier in the trial introduced testimony that DNA found under Yelenic’s fingernails was likely Foley’s and that bloody shoe prints at the scene matched a pair Foley was known to wear at the time.

Foley is charged with criminal homicide, meaning the jury must not only determine his guilt or innocence, but also the underlying murder or manslaughter crime he may have committed.

Prosecutors have said they believe Foley is guilty of first-degree murder — premeditated with malice. The charge carries a mandatory life sentence because prosecutors are not pursuing the death penalty.