Zito sentenced to
death
Centreville man was convicted last week of killing two Eastern Shore
police
officers; Jury deliberates 6 hours By John Biemer
The Associated Press
Originally published May 30, 2002, 7:42 PM EDT
SALISBURY -- A Wicomico County jury today sentenced Francis Zito to die
for
murdering two Eastern Shore police officers who had come to his
Centreville
trailer to investigate a noise complaint.The jury of three men and nine
women
deliberated for six hours before delivering the sentence.Zito sat
motionless
as the sentence was read. A crowd of about 40 family members, friends
and
fellow police officers were present, and some burst into tears and
hugged
each other as they heard the outcome.Two of the jurors were crying.Zito
was
convicted last Friday of the February 2001 murders of Queen Anne's
County
Sheriff's Deputy Jason Schwenz and Centreville Police Officer Michael
Nickerson. By agreeing on a verdict of first-degree murder, the jury
rejected
Zito's defense that he was not criminally responsible due to mental
illness.While deliberating earlier in the day today, jurors had asked to
see
a forensics photo of Schwenz's body.Schwenz's father, Charles Schwenz,
said
that after sitting through the trial and seeing how gruesome the
killings
were, he believed this was a proper sentence."I only wish Mr. Zito
would've
shown some remorse, but he never did," Schwenz said.State Trooper
Corey
Skidmore, the third officer who was on the porch of Zito's trailer when
Zito
opened fire, spoke to the court after the sentence was read.Between long
pauses as he held back tears, Skidmore said, "I can't express to
you enough
the pain, suffering that he has caused."Zito, 43, addressed the
courtroom
earlier today, before his defense attorney gave her closing argument. He
read
haltingly and sometimes incoherently from a piece of paper."I
didn't plan or
want any of this to happen," he said. "I'm sorry for the
police officers'
loved ones and I'm sorry for my loved ones."After the sentencing,
Zito's
defense attorneys left the court through a backdoor without
commenting.Police
said that on the night the three officers came to Zito's home, he did
not
come outside when asked. When police came onto his porch and opened his
door,
Zito fired at them with a shotgun.Christopher Drummond, the Queen Anne's
County assistant state's attorney, argued Zito should be put to death
because
of two aggravating circumstances specified in state law: the officers
were
performing their duties in uniform and two people were killed as part of
the
same crime.Drummond also argued Zito's history of mental illness had no
impact on his decision to shoot the officers. Drummond said Zito acted
deliberately the night of the killing, shooting the officers multiple
times
and surrendering with his hands up.Those were the actions, Drummond
said, of
a "pretty cool character. He planned, he executed, then he saved
his own
skin."Defense attorney Patricia Chappell countered Drummond's
arguments
Thursday with a list of mitigating factors which she said made life in
prison
a more appropriate sentence.She noted Zito has no violent criminal
record and
his mental illness, most commonly diagnosed as schizo-affective disorder
bipolar type, caused extreme anti-social, disruptive and delusional
behavior."This is a man who's known throughout Centreville as the
man who
talks to garbage cans," she said.She also said there's evidence
police
provoked Zito into mistakenly believing he needed to defend himself,
including illegally entering his porch without a search warrant.At the
mention of this, Zito interrupted Chappell, blurting out, "I tried
everything
to avoid it.""I should've left. I was too stupid to do
anything. (The police)
were stalking me the night before. I should've got out of there,"
he said to
a hushed courtroom.Police had gone to Zito's trailer the night before
the
shooting to investigate another complaint that he was playing music too
loud.
That night, he cooperated.Chappell appealed to the jury to show mercy,
repeating several times that "any man's death diminishes us
all.""The death
penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst," she said.
"Frank Zito is not
the worst of the worst."In his rebuttal, Queen Anne's State's
Attorney David
Gregory asked the jury to look at the crime through the eyes of the
victims'
relatives, and to consider the manner in which the officers were shot --
with
one of them shot in the back and the other shot, finally, from three
feet
away."Ladies and gentlemen, I can't think of anything worse,"
he said.
Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press
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