THE ALLEGED ACCOMPLICES
When Prosecutor's investigator Ron Craig took over the investigation of the Hartig murders from the Sheriff's Department, he adopted a strategy of divide and conquer. He first targeted Butch Wolcott, the youngest of the four suspects. Butch was 14 years old in April, 1990. Ron Craig and Prosecutor Robert Durst questioned Butch without his father and without an attorney present. Butch insisted that neither he nor Tyrone nor Gary nor Joey was involved in the Hartig murders.
Craig lied to Butch, telling him that there was an eyewitness to the murders, a utility worker on a utility pole, who saw him and the others at the Hartig home. He also told him that his DNA matched the DNA on the cigarette butt found at the scene. He told Butch that he could be charged with the murders and could go to jail for the rest of his life. Ron Craig told Butch he would get immunity if he cooperated, but that he would not get immunity if he did not pass a polygraph examination which Craig said he was required to take.
After the polygraph exam Prosecutor Durst told Butch he failed the polygraph, and that the polygraph exam indicated he was involved in the Hartig murders, but Durst didn't show him the report of the polygraph exam. Thereafter Portage County Public Defender William Carrell was appointed to represent Butch. Butch told Carrell he was not involved in the Hartig murders and didn't know anything about them. Carrell told Butch he should cooperate with the Prosecutor and get immunity.
Ron Craig sent Butch to psychologist Alfred Grzegorek who determined the reason that Butch couldn't remember anything about the Hartig murders was that he had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, In his report, attorneys never used in court, Grzegorek wrote that Wolcott "was quite clear with me that he is extremely frightened that he will not be able to recall enough to win the immunity recommendation premised on his cooperation in the investigation." Wolcott, he wrote, had begun to think he was "going crazy," not certain if his recollections of the murders were real or imagined. Recently, the psychologist said he isn't sure, either.
The psychologist warned prosecutors in 1992 not to press Wolcott too hard or he might fill the gaps in his story with information gleaned from suggestions and hints made by investigators or Grzegorek himself.
"One of the worst things you can do is create a memory that in fact really isn't there," Grzegorek says today.
Thereafter Ron Craig and Robert Durst questioned Butch over and over again. They convinced him that he and the others were involved in the Hartig murders and they coached and rehearsed him until he was able to provide testimony against Tyrone. Ultimately, in June, 1992, Butch gave a sworn statement to the Prosecutors. He was granted immunity to testify at Tyrone's trial.
After they got a statement from Butch Wolcott, Ron Craig and Robert Durst turned to Joey Dalesandro, who was serving a sentence at Allen Correctional Institution on a drug conviction. They convinced Joey's attorney, John Noble, that despite Joey's insistence that neither he nor Tyrone or the others were involved in the Hartig murders, Joey was involved. Noble showed Joey Butch Wolcott's statement. Noble told Joey he should accept a plea bargain and cooperate with the Prosecutor to avoid the electric chair. Joey's parents pleaded with him to save his life and to accept a plea bargain. Joey did, and agreed to tell Ron Craig and the Prosecutors what he knew in exchange for a plea to conspiracy to aggravated robbery with a sentence of 5 to 15 years to be served concurrently with his drug sentence.
After his plea on July 29, 1992 Joey gave a statement to Ron Craig. Before and during the statement Craig coached Joey in making the statement and yelled at him if he did not say what Craig wanted to hear. Ultimately the Prosecutor was not satisfied with Joey's statement. The Prosecutor, in June, 1995, asked Judge Martin, the Judge who presided over Joey's plea as well as Tyrone's trial, to increase Joey's sentence to 8 to 15 years consecutive to his prior sentence. Despite Joey's request for a change of counsel and his insistence to the Judge that he was telling the Prosecutor the truth, Judge Martin increased Joey's sentence. Before Tyrone's trial Joey gave in and testified for the Prosecutor in order to get his former sentence restored.
After Ron Craig and the Prosecutor got Joey Dalesandro's statement they then turned to Gary St. Clair, who was serving a sentence at Orient Correctional Institution based on his plea of guilty for his involvement in the robbery of the Hugheses. Like Butch Wolcott and Joey Dalesandro, Gary insisted that neither he nor Tyrone nor the others were involved in the Hartig murders. Like Butch's and Joey's attorneys, Gary's attorneys advised him to accept a plea and to cooperate with the Prosecutor to avoid the electric chair. Gary did not want to plead guilty but his father urged him along with his attorneys to accept a plea to save his life. Gary entered a plea on March 19, 1993. He plead guilty to aggravated murder with a gun specification. The plea bargain was supposed to get him a sentence of 20 years to life.
The prosecutor later submitted a sentencing entry which the sentencing Judge signed stating a sentence of 20 years actual incarceration to life. Gary's attorney later filed a motion to correct the sentence, stating that the Prosecutor unilaterally changed Gary's sentence in retaliation for his non-cooperation. His sentence was finally corrected in 2005, but only after the Ohio Public Defender's office filed a motion on his behalf.
The reason the Prosecutor wanted to retaliate was that in March, 1993, immediately after he entered his plea, Gary gave a statement to Ron Craig and the Prosecutors. Gary was coached and rehearsed to say what the Prosecutors wanted him to say. On April 15, 1993, as Tyrone's June 1, 1993 trial date approached, investigators for Tyrone's trial counsel, Vicky Buckwalter and Darla Cogan, went to interview Gary at Orient. Gary gave a recorded statement in which he retracted his statement to the Prosecutors and said he didn't know anything about the Hartig murders. His knowledge of the crime and the crime scene came from pictures he was shown by Ron Craig and from the videotape shown him by his own attorneys. As a result of this statement the Prosecutors dismissed the indictment against Tyrone.
Thereafter Ron Craig revisited Gary and thought he got him back to saying what he wanted him to say. However, at Tyrone's trial in January, 1996, when the prosecution called Gary as a witness under oath, he repudiated his pretrial statement and insisted that he and Tyrone were not involved in the Hartig murders. The Prosecutor had Gary declared a hostile witness. The prosecution attempted, improperly, to use Gary's pretrial statement as evidence of Tyrone's guilt.
The affidavits of Gary St. Clair, Butch Wolcott, and Joey Dalesandro show a concerted campaign by Ron Craig and the Portage County Prosecutor's Office to coerce, intimidate, coach, prompt, indoctrinate, and program their testimony, knowing that they were not involved in the Hartig murders and did not have personal knowledge of the facts and circumstances. Butch, Joey, and Gary were especially susceptible to being coerced. They were young, poor, and unsophisticated. Their families were incapable of providing them any significant moral or financial support. Their attorneys, once they were appointed, failed to provide them any meaningful assistance.
Although Tyrone's trial counsel cross-examined Butch Wolcott and Joey Dalesandro about their deals with the Prosecutor, concerning glaring inconsistencies in their various pretrial statements, and as to marked inconsistencies between their pretrial statements and their trial testimony, they failed to cross-examine them concerning the conflict in the date Beverly Rupp picked up Johnny Trandafir, Jr., to go celebrate Beverly's birthday, concerning Mrs. Davis' evidence as to the timing of the murders, and failed to question them about their testimony about the smoking murder weapon.
Tyrone's trial counsel, through defense investigator Larry Cogan, commissioned Marc Trundle, a ballistics expert with the Tallmadge Police Department to conduct a test and to prepare a report on whether a .25 caliber pistol could be smoking as Butch Wolcott and Joey Dalesandro indicated in pretrial statements they witnessed the murder weapon doing when Tyrone supposedly exited the Hartig home. Trundle prepared a report stating that the gun could not have been smoking. Nevertheless, Tyrone's trial counsel did not call Trundle to testify concerning his test and his report, and they did not cross-examine Butch and Joey to impeach them concerning their trial testimony that they saw or smelled the murder weapon smoking.
CONTINUED:
THE M.O.
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