Trial begins for man accused of killing three people, including 12-year-old boy, in Homewood

Allegheny County prosecutors hope that video evidence will carry the day in the trial of a man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, her son and another woman in Homewood.

City cameras, license plate readers and private video recordings showed the 2014 black Nissan Altima arriving at the crime scene and leaving a few hours later.

A private security camera mounted on the outside of the Hamilton Avenue duplex in Homewood where three people were killed also captured the suspect as he approached the front door, his right hand, grasping a gun, down by his side.

That same security camera captured the same man, police said, a few days earlier.

Those images, as well as ballistic evidence, fingerprints and blood smears, prosecutors hope, will lead to the conviction of Ronald Steave, 32, for three counts of first-degree murder.

He is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, Nandi Fitzgerald, 28; her son, Denzel “Buddy” Nowlin Jr., 12; and Tatiana “Tay” Hill, 28, on New Year’s Eve 2021.

Steave’s trial began on Friday. Though the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office initially sought the death penalty in the case, it withdrew notice of potential capital punishment last week.

A jury was selected, but on Friday, as the trial was about to begin, defense attorney Frank Walker told the court his client now wanted his case to be decided by the judge.

The prosecution consented, and Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski sent the jurors home.

Deputy District Attorney Alison Bragle called 13 witnesses on Friday, moving quickly through the case against Steave.

The neighbor who lived in the other side of the duplex called 911 at 4:02 a.m., reporting that a bullet had traveled through the adjoining wall and into a bedroom of their house.

“Someone needs to go check [next door] because that’s where the bullet came from,” the 911 caller told dispatch. “Because she has kids over there.”

When officers arrived, they found Fitzgerald, with a gunshot wound to the head, slumped against the front door.

The bodies of Nowlin and Hill were discovered in a third-floor bedroom. The officer who found them said that the room was filled with gunsmoke when he entered.

Using the time of the 911 call as a guide, Sgt. Timothy Cole was able to use city cameras to track the suspect’s vehicle at Fitzgerald’s house that morning. At 3:58 a.m., the cameras showed the shooting suspect leaving the house and getting into the car. The vehicle then made a three-point turn and drove down Hamilton.

It traveled through several intersections, and cameras isolated its license plate. It was registered to Steave. The cameras tracked the car back to a house on North Negley Street where he lived around 4:11 a.m.

Steave stopped there briefly and then left again. Pittsburgh officers located the Nissan later that morning in McKeesport.

He was on the run for three months before he was arrested.

According to investigators who searched Steave’s car, they found three magazines for a handgun. Investigators also found cleaning wipes and noted that, while the rest of the vehicle was dirty, the driver’s side door handle had been wiped clean, with fluid running down from it.

Despite the number of witnesses called on Friday, Walker asked almost no questions on cross-examination. The lone exception was when Dr. Todd Luckasevic, the forensic pathologist who completed autopsies on Fitzgerald and Hill, testified.

Luckasevic said that Fitzgerald was killed by a contact wound on the left side of her head, under her chin.

Walker asked if that location was a hallmark of suicide. His client, in an interview with police after his arrest, said that Fitzgerald killed the others and then killed her herself.

However, Luckasevic said that the location of Fitzgerald’s wound would be atypical for suicide.

The prosecution also noted that Fitzgerald was right handed.

The trial resumes Monday.