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June 13, 2008

Homicide trial begins

By MaryAlice Meli

Kailin Stewart is standing trial for allegedly taking part in the Feb. 12, 2005, slaying of Carmen Oliva.

Stewart’s father, 38-year-old Ronald Gilmore, was convicted last May for his role in the shooting death of the New Castle man.

Stewart, 21, is charged with criminal homicide and criminal conspiracy to commit homicide.

His father was found guilty of criminal conspiracy to commit homicide and was sentenced to 17 1/2 to 35 years in prison. The jury acquitted him of a homicide charge and illegal possession of a handgun.

Stewart’s court-appointed defense attorney, Michael Frisk of Ellwood City, suggested in his opening statement yesterday that his client, who was 18 when the killing occurred, had no reason to kill Oliva. He said Oliva was a good customer of the crack cocaine Stewart sold to support his mother and his siblings.

“Ronald Gilmore shot Carmen Oliva in cold blood,” Frisk said. “Kailin Stewart was a lifelong victim of Ronald Gilmore who was not a father to him. He donated DNA but was never around for Kailin Stewart’s mother and his siblings.”

Frisk said Gilmore and Oliva and others had argued at a Carson Street crack house called The Clubhouse on New Castle’s West Side over rumors that Oliva was a “snitch” to police. Frisk told the jury they would be “shocked and amazed” at the upcoming evidence and testimony.

Assistant District Attorney Bill Flannery said the prosecution’s theory is that “Ronald Gilmore, (Stewart’s) father, actually shot Oliva and the defendant was an accomplice, just as responsible for homicide. He entered a conspiracy (with Gilmore) to kill Carmen Oliva.”

Flannery said Oliva and Gilmore had spent the day at The Clubhouse getting high. He said a state witness, Andrae Jackson, 26, will testify that Stewart, carrying a 9 mm handgun, went to the Clubhouse to ask Oliva if the rumor that he was a snitch was true.

The confrontation among the men escalated, Flannery said, and they left the Clubhouse and went to a residence on Wallace Avenue where they continued to argue. Flannery said Gilmore summoned Stewart, who arrived at the scene with the 9 mm handgun and two loaded clips of ammunition.

Flannery said the men left that location with Oliva driving his silver or gray Chrysler 300 and Gilmore as his passenger, followed by Stewart in a Scion.

“That was the last time Carmen Oliva was seen alive.”

Flannery called Jeff Rankin as his first witness, who testified he saw a car parked near his house on West North Street with its passenger side door open. He said he saw a figure in the car as he pulled into his driveway. He said he walked to the car, noted the dead man and called police.

James Fuqua of West North Street, another prosecution witness, pinpointed the time of the shooting around 7:30 p.m. based on the start of a television program he and his wife were watching. He said she heard five popping sounds, but he paid no attention.

“It sounds like that all the time,” he said. The Fuquas live about six houses away from Rankin’s home where the car was found.

New Castle Patrolman Richard Conti, a 10-year-policeman, said five bullet casings were on the passenger side of Oliva’s vehicle. He said Oliva sustained two fatal gunshot wounds.

Presiding Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas M. Piccione told the jury before the attorneys’ remarks that “opening statements do not establish facts ... Do not conclude that (the attorneys) can prove what they say.”

Piccione recessed the trial at noon and said it would resume today.

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