Judge finds DA’s office failed to provide evidence to defense in Pittsburgh triple murder

A judge on Wednesday refused to dismiss a death penalty case in a Pittsburgh triple slaying despite finding that prosecutors failed to turn over evidence against the defendant.

As a result, Ronald Steave’s jury trial will move forward to Monday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

Steave, 32, is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend Nandi Fitzgerald, 28; his son, Denzel “Buddy” Nowlin Jr., 12; and Tatiana “Tay” Hill, 28, on New Year’s Eve 2021. Steave had a different child with Fitzgerald.

Steave’s attorneys sought to have the case dismissed, claiming that for more than two years, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office failed to release a recording of a statement their client made to police who blamed Fitzgerald for the murders.

A former prosecutor who took the witness stand acknowledged the mistake but said it was accidental.

The defense agreed that withholding the evidence was not malicious, but still asked that the charges against Steave be dismissed.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski declined, saying the violation did not rise to the level of prosecutorial misconduct that warranted a dismissal.

‘I was mumbling’

The case began when police were called to a row house on Hamilton Avenue in the city’s Homewood section around 4 a.m. on Dec. 31, 2021, after neighbors reported hearing shots

Officers found Fitzgerald dead just inside the front door. It seemed that her son had hid behind a door. Hill was under a bed.

Steave was charged on January 6, 2022, but was not arrested until March 24, 2022.

That day, Pittsburgh police interviewed Steave. Detectives Janine Triolo and Artie Patterson testified that they read her a Miranda warning and asked her if she wanted to talk to them.

According to a transcript of the interview, Steave said, “No.”

But Triolo testified Wednesday that it wasn’t so clear to her.

“He hung his head and mumbled,” Triolo testified. “I didn’t take it as declining.”

Patterson also testified that Steave’s response was vague.

“We really couldn’t understand him,” Patterson said. “I was mumbling.”

Detectives continued to question Steave for more than three hours.

Eventually, Steave told them that he was in the house when the victims were killed, but that Fitzgerald killed his son and Hill before shooting himself.

Triolo testified that he recounted Steave’s statement to then-District Attorney Stephie Ramaley the next day.

But the defense did not learn of the plea until last month.

“I don’t hide things”

Steave’s attorneys filed a motion to suppress, arguing their client asserted his right to remain silent at the start of the interview, but detectives ignored it.

They also filed a motion to dismiss the case against Steave for prosecutorial misconduct.

Ramaley, who was in charge of prosecuting homicide cases in Pittsburgh at the time, told the court that she had been involved in the case of the three victims since the day it happened. As soon as he heard what Steave said in his deposition, he said, he set out to disprove it through forensic evidence.

Ramaley, who left the DA’s office last year, said he remembers telling Steave’s current defense attorneys, Frank Walker and Michael Machen, that his client made a statement, and he thought he gave the recording.

“I don’t hide things,” he declared.

Ramaley testified that early in the case she asked her office to make a new, complete copy of the records to give to Steave’s defense attorneys, but she never went through with it herself.

“I was never aware that that statement wasn’t there,” Ramaley said.

During that period, Ramaley said, there were several homicide cases involving multiple co-defendants, and she was in two consecutive death penalty trials.

His office, he continued, also dropped 20 prosecutors at that time.

“This was not deliberate,” Ramaley said. “We’re only human. We’re doing what we can.”

Ramaley apologized for not giving the recorded statement to the defense.

“I feel horrible about it.”

Another pending motion

While Walker acknowledged the violation was not malicious, he said the failure to turn over the recording justified the dismissal of the charges.

“Mr. Steave was prejudiced by it,” Walker said.

Walker and Machen were not given the opportunity to take follow-up tests for DNA evidence that could have helped their defense. And in a motion, they wrote that the public defender who represented Steave at his preliminary hearing might have conducted his questioning of witnesses differently had he known about the recording.

Assistant District Attorney Brian Catanzarite admitted there was a Miranda violation in obtaining Steave’s statement when detectives persisted in asking questions even though he said he did not want to talk to them.

Catanzarite said the DA’s office would not seek to use the statement at trial.

Asking for the case file, however, was a step too far, Catanzarite argued.

“The evidence was delivered. It was delivered more than a month before the trial,” Catanzarite said.

He suggested the judge should suppress the evidence or postpone the trial.

In addition, the prosecution pointed out that Steave should have known that he made a statement to the police.

Borkowski, who ruled from the bench, denied the motion to dismiss the case.

Another defense motion to bar the death penalty against Steave based on allegations that he has an intellectual disability will be heard on Friday.