SIDNEY PARRISH - 19 Months (2009) - Stroudsburg PA

STROUDSBURG, Pa. - The family of Victoria Adams
and Sidney Parrish squeezed each others' hands and shed tears Monday
night as a jury voted to sentence Michael Parrish to death for fatally
shooting his girlfriend and 19-month-old son in July 2009.
Sitting between his attorneys, Parrish showed no emotion to the verdict,
staring straight ahead and blinking his eyes every few seconds. Though
his father and a former co-worker had testified earlier on his behalf,
none of Parrish's family or friends were present for the jury's penalty
phase verdict.
Following testimony from several witnesses and then the prosecution's and defense's closing
arguments, the jury of nine men and six women deliberated for three and a
half hours before reaching its verdict, having convicted Parrish in the
trial phase of first-degree murder in the deaths of Victoria Adams, 21,
and baby Sidney Parrish.
Michael Parrish remained as stoic as ever, saying nothing as sheriff's deputies led him from the courtroom after the verdict.
“I wanted him to get death and I'm glad he got it, but it still doesn't
bring my daughter and grandson back,” a tearful Kim Adams, mother of
Victoria Adams and grandmother to Sidney, said as she left the
courthouse with other family members. “Nothing can ever bring them back.”
A somber Wieslaw Niemoczynski, the
county public defender who with attorney Jim Gregor has been
representing Parrish, called the verdict “very sobering.”
“The jury has spoken,” Niemoczynski said. “We'll see what, if any, issues should be appealed and go from there.”
First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso thanked investigators for
gathering evidence and the jury for doing its duty in weighing that
evidence carefully. Though Mancuso has tried other death penalty cases
before, this is the first case he has prosecuted in which a jury found a
defendant should be executed.
“I know it wasn't a pleasant task for the jury and they are to be commended,”
Mancuso said. “This was a brutal set of facts. The jury, after weighing
aggravating factors against mitigating factors, felt duty-bound to
decide death should be the penalty.”
First-degree (premeditated) murder, the most serious of the levels of homicide with
which Parrish was charged, is the only level warranting the death
penalty or life in prison without parole. The prosecution said the
aggravating factors warranting the death penalty in this case included
there being two victims killed at the same time and one of them being under age 12.
Parrish has said the murders
weren't premeditated, but that he killed the victims in the heat of the
moment. The defense cited a number of factors, including Parrish's
personality disorders resulting from a troubled childhood and the stress
of being in a relationship with a woman he suspected of cheating on him
and having a child with a medical condition. Sidney had undergone a
heart transplant prior to being murdered.
The defense argued that Parrish had no significant prior criminal record,
plus the troubled childhood and emotional disorders contributing to the
murders, were mitigating factors warranting life in prison as opposed to
death. The defense said, though, that these factors weren't meant to
excuse Parrish's actions, since he clearly knew that those actions were wrong.
Monroe County Court Judge Margherita
Patti Worthington will sentence Parrish within 90 days and a date of
execution will be set. Parrish will be made aware of his appellate
rights at his sentencing.
He is the second defendant in Monroe County to receive the death penalty since Manuel Sepulveda in 2002.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120403/NEWS/120409914