Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 29, 1994 TAG: 9401290166
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHATHAM LENGTH: Medium
A jury on Friday found Ronald Lee Fitzgerald guilty of two counts of capital murder, rape, abduction and robbery and one count of breaking and entering.
The jury, which convicted Fitzgerald after deliberating four hours, could sentence him either to life imprisonment or death in the electric chair after closing arguments today.
During the sentencing hearing that began Friday afternoon, Fitzgerald's attorneys presented evidence that he had a "horrible childhood" in a broken home and that, with an IQ of 75, was nearly mentally retarded.
But Commonwealth's Attorney David Grimes, who called the crime spree one of the worst ever in Pittsylvania County, tried to show that Fitzgerald is a violent person and a threat to society.
During the trial, David Melesco of Rocky Mount and Richard Lawrence of Roanoke suggested that their client's Jan. 29, 1993, crime spree was spurred by a desire for revenge. Fitzgerald, they said, was furious at Gerard Younger, 21, of Chatham, because Younger claimed to be the father of Fitzgerald's son.
The defense team's only witness, Fitzgerald's 20-year-old girlfriend, Amanda White of Chatham, said that she didn't tell Fitzgerald that Younger was indeed the father until after Fitzgerald was in jail.
The defense conceded Fitzgerald committed the crimes, but argued that he should be convicted of first-degree murder, which does not carry the death penalty.
Fitzgerald killed Coy White, 39, the uncle of his girlfriend, and Huie Morrison, 72, a cab driver who drove his girlfriend to a clinic to get prenatal care. White testified that she told Fitzgerald that Morrison "was feeling on me in his cab."
"It's a tragedy what happened, but it's not capital murder," Melesco told the jury in his closing argument. "This was not about murder. This is about a young man, a boy-child really, that got so jealous his mind simply snapped."
Once in jail, Fitzgerald wrote in a letter to White, "I would have killed anybody that tried to take you from me. You just don't know how many people I was going to kill over you, girl."
Fitzgerald raped one young woman in Coy White's car, hidden in a remote barn, shortly after killing White. He raped his second victim in a motel in Altavista shortly after killing Morrison.
by CNB