Judge won't bar death penalty in Pittsburgh triple killing trial

Lawyers for a man accused of a Pittsburgh triple killing have failed to convince a judge that the death penalty should be off the table because of what they say is their client’s intellectual disability.

“This case is going to trial — my position did not change,” Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski said Monday morning.

Jury selection is now set to begin in the case of Ronald Steave, 32, who is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend Nandi Fitzgerald, 28; her son, Denzel “Buddy” Nowlin Jr., 12; and her friend, Tatiana “Tay” Hill, 28, on New Year’s Eve 2021. Steave had a different child with Fitzgerald.

Steave’s attorneys moved to bar the death penalty based on allegations they claim he has an intellectual disability. The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office in 2022 pointed to seven factors prosecutors believe warrant putting Steave to death.

Under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case, it is unconstitutional to sentence a person with intellectual disability to death.

Borkowski didn’t agree with Steave’s lawyers. He said Commonwealth v. Sanchez, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision, found that a jury must evaluate any potential intellectual disability during the sentencing phase after a verdict.

Attorneys on both sides Monday advocated for a trial delay, with prosecutors arguing they needed more time to evaluate experts weighing in on Steave’s alleged disability.

Borkowski declined to postpone.

Findings on Steave from a court-appointed expert will be available to both prosecutors and defense attorneys during the penalty phase, Borkowski said.

Steave’s case began when police were called to a rowhouse on Hamilton Avenue in the city’s Homewood section around 4 a.m. on Dec. 31, 2021, after neighbors reported hearing gunfire.

Officers found Fitzgerald dead just inside the front door. Her son appeared to have been hiding behind a door. Hill was under a bed.