The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Published Tuesday, April 11, 2000

SHARON

Jury deciding on life or death for Fuller
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Family,pastor: Ron was good
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PROSECUTION: HE DIDN’T CARE WHO HE SHOT AT HOUSE

By Hal Johnson
Herald Writer

A Mercer County Common Pleas Court jury on Monday began weighing the two sides of Ronald Fuller to decide whether he should live or die.

The 25-year-old Farrell man’s family and pastor described him as an amiable, church-going Farrell High School graduate, who worked 60 hours a week at two jobs and who advised his younger sister on boyfriends.

Prosecutors described him as a gang member, who broke into a dark Sharon house with a sawed-off shotgun and murdered the first thing he saw: 13-year-old Jeremy Farrand.

After hearing arguments for and against sentencing Fuller to death, the jurors deliberated for 2½ hours Monday before they were sequestered in a motel. The jury returned to the courthouse this morning to resume deliberations.

The jury found Fuller guilty of first-degree murder, burglary, possessing a prohibited offensive weapon and possessing instruments of crime in connection with the May 29 murder of Jeremy in the boy’s 575 Prindle St. home in Sharon. The first-degree murder verdict sent the trial into the sentencing phase.

If jurors decide against the death penalty or the judge doesn’t accept their recommendation, Fuller will be sentenced to life in prison.

Prosecutors called no witnesses for the sentencing phase. The guilty verdict on the burglary charge shows prosecutors had already proven the aggravating factor for the death penalty, said Assistant District Attorney Timothy R. Bonner. The jury should sentence Fuller to death if another felony — in this case, burglary — was committed along with the murder, he said. “There is no more disturbing thing than when someone enters your home with a weapon in the stealth of darkness. There’s nothing more heinous than the thought of Ronald Fuller walking up Spruce Avenue with a weapon and walking into a house of women and children and delivering a message,” Bonner said.

Prosecutors said Fuller intended either to kill or send a message to Lindsey Lowe for implicating Fuller’s friend in a robbery. Lowe frequented the house where Jeremy lived. “Whomever Ronald Fuller met in that house was going to be murdered,” Bonner said.

However, murder was the only crime committed, said Gerald Cassady, an associate with court-appointed defense attorney Wayne Hundertmark. “There is little or no evidence introduced of any other crime in that residence. There was no evidence of anything done in that house other than the shooting,” Cassady said.

The Rev. Wilbert G. Hadden, pastor of Greater Mount Zion Church of God and Christ, Farrell, said Fuller, as a teen-ager, attended church and Sunday school regularly and was active in the church’s Boys Boosters Club and junior ushers.

The pastor said Fuller’s mother, Emma J. Gregory, struggled to work and rear two boys and four daughters. Fuller is the oldest.

With tutoring, Fuller graduated high school, said Olive M. Brown, who also attended the church. “Whatever you asked him to do, he did it and in a mannerly fashion,” Mrs. Brown said. Fuller “had a good start, but he was a hard-headed and rebellious young man,” Rev. Hadden said. Fuller’s sister, Leviticus C. Fuller, said her older brother would offer his advice on boyfriends.

“I tried to keep my children off the streets. So I took them to church a lot,” Mrs. Gregory said. Because Mrs. Gregory and Fuller’s father were separated less than a year after Fuller was born, he grew up much of his life without a father figure, she said.

“He was outgoing. I taught him to be that way, but he overdid it,” Mrs. Gregory said. Mrs. Gregory, Rev. Hadden, and Ms. Fuller denied knowing about Fuller’s past crimes, including a robbery and an assault on a 17-year-old girl.

Mrs. Gregory said an assault on her was his way of protecting himself from getting a whipping. She also said she was not aware of his gang tattoos until they were shown on television after his arrest.

Bonner said no evidence was offered claiming Fuller had a good character. Using a scale, a miniature house and a small weight, Bonner indicated the “random act of violence” outweighed the limited amount of mitigating factors offered by Fuller’s lawyers.

That angered Hundertmark, who said the toy scale and toy house trivialized the life or death sentence.

“Jeremy’s dead. There is nothing more tragic in life than to bury a child. I can’t make that pain go away. Nor can you. Killing Ron is not going to help the pain go away,” Hundertmark told the jury.

He noted testimony from two cellmates, Phillip Root and Cordell Sewell, who said Fuller told them the shooting was an accident. “Ronald Fuller doesn’t deserve to die for an accident,” he said. “I’m sorry this happened, but my son is not a murderer,” Mrs. Gregory said. “I don’t consider him as being found guilty,” she said.

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