Death penalty withdrawn in killing of police officer

The DA’s office made the decision after receiving Johnathan Morris’ psychiatric records.

By PAULA REED WARD
TribLive

The man accused of killing McKeesport police Officer Sean Sluganski will not face the death penalty if found guilty.

On Wednesday, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office filed a notice to rescind its intent to seek capital punishment against Johnathan Morris — just days after receiving his psychiatric records.

“Experts were retained, expert reports were generated, and said reports were simultaneously exchanged between the commonwealth and defense regarding the defendant’s mental health,” the prosecution wrote in a five-page document. “Following due consideration of all of the relevant facts and circumstances, the commonwealth has decided not to seek a penalty of death.”

It is the sixth time in the last three years the DA’s office has taken the death penalty off the table in a case.

Morris, 34, is charged with killing Sluganski, 32, on Feb. 6, 2023, after officers were called to his mother’s house in McKeesport just after noon.

Also wounded in the incident was Officer Chuck Thomas.

Morris’ trial was scheduled to begin jury selection on April 27 before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Bruce Beemer.

However, the case was delayed after a status conference in February when the fourth prosecutor assigned to it, Jennifer Berosh, announced that she, too, was leaving the district attorney’s office.

She was replaced by Deputy District Attorney Emma Schoedel.

According to the Wednesday filing, on March 27, prosecutors asked the defense to provide its mitiga- tion evidence, including Morris’ psychiatric records.

The filing to rescind came just five days later.

Morris’ attorneys, Carmen Robinson and Elbert Gray, filed notice in September 2024 that they would pursue an insanity defense, citing their client’s diagnoses of schizophrenia, chronic post-traumatic stress disorder with paranoia and hypervigilance.

Robinson declined comment on Thursday, citing a gag order in the case.

The DA’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The shooting

Morris, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2013 to 2018, was deployed to Afghanistan and developed PTSD, the defense has said. He received treatment in the military and was honorably discharged.

On the day of the shooting, his mother, a former McKeesport police officer, told dispatchers her son was being aggressive toward her and was having a “PTSD episode,” investigators said. When Sluganski arrived at the house, Morris was gone, but the officer spotted him minutes later.

Morris ran, and both Sluganski and Thomas, who responded to the scene in a patrol car, pursued him.

Thomas was shot in the face and wounded. He also returned fire, striking Morris in the leg.

Sluganski was shot and died a short time later at the hospital.

Morris was arrested in a nearby parking lot. After being treated at the hospital for his gunshot wound, Morris was taken to Torrance State Hospital for a mental health evaluation.

The prosecution filed notice to seek death against him on March 21, 2023.

Morris’ case is the sixth time in recent years that District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s office has withdrawn notice seeking capital punishment against a defendant.

The office also withdrew notice to seek the death penalty against Calvin Crew, accused of killing his Uber driver, just four days before jury selection was scheduled in January 2025.

The same thing happened against Ronald Steave, 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, also days before his trial started in November 2024.

The DA’s office withdrew notice it would seek capital punishment against Sean Black, accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, Courtney Smith, 30, at their Blawnox workplace.

And in 2023, a month before trial began, the prosecution withdrew notice against Christian Bey, who was accused of killing off-duty Pittsburgh police Officer Calvin Hall in 2019.

The DA’s office also filed notice to rescind in the case against Cesar Mazza, accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, Tionna Banks, and her grandmother, Valorie Crumpton.

In that case, Mazza pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree murder about three weeks later. He was ordered to serve 30 to 60 years in prison.

David Harris, a criminal law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said when a prosecutor requests the death penalty, “we want to know that they have not only good and sufficient evidence to tick the boxes required, but that it is truly in that category of the worst of the worst.”

“It is not something to be used as a matter of routine every time you can check those boxes.”

Harris said as cases are prepped for trial, new information — like mental health records — can come in that might change whether it should stay on a death penalty track.

“If that decision has been made, and evidence to the contrary, or circumstances to the contrary arise, it’s a good thing that a district attorney’s office has said, ‘Look, we’ve changed our minds about this. We don’t think this is an appropriate case,’ and withdraw that request,” Harris said.

“There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s the right thing.”