1 of 2 brothers in 2017 slaying of Spring Garden activist Gerard Grandzol pleads guilty to murder

Maurice Roberts, the older of two brothers charged with murder in the 2017 shooting death of Spring Garden activist Gerard Grandzol, pleaded guilty in court Friday to third-degree murder and related offenses in exchange for a sentence of 25 to 50 years in prison.

Roberts, 21, was not accused of being the shooter. His brother Marvin, now 18, is.

Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore told Common Pleas Court Judge Glenn Bronson that her office was extending a plea offer to Marvin Roberts and that he could plead guilty Feb. 8. If not, a March 4 trial would remain in place.

During a two-hour hearing Friday, about 50 relatives and friends of Grandzol’s packed the courtroom for Maurice Roberts' plea hearing and sentencing.

Grandzol’s wife, Kristin; three of his four sisters; his brother; other relatives; and friends told the judge of how special Grandzol was in his Spring Garden community, on the 1500 block of Melon Street where he lived, at the legal recruitment firm Special Counsel, and especially as a father of two young girls.

“When I met Gerry about a decade ago, I knew he was special,” said Kristin Grandzol, 35. “I fell in love fast.”

Her husband was active in Francisville and Spring Garden, and worked with Project HOME because he cared about homelessness, she said. When he was killed at age 38, their daughter Violet was 2, and Rose was just 5½ weeks old.

“We were in love, happy, and just starting our life together,” Kristin Grandzol told the judge as she stood between the jury box and the prosecutors' table.

Standing next to her, Pescatore also was emotional, as were many people in the packed courtroom.

Anthony Voci, the district attorney’s homicide chief, was asked afterward by reporters why his office didn’t proceed to a trial on first- and second-degree murder charges given that there was strong evidence against Roberts.

“Regardless of what the charges are, one thing is certain [in a trial], and that is that the outcome is uncertain," Voci said. "When we make a plea offer, we do so with the knowledge and understanding that it brings a very quick and effective closure to the proceedings.”

Afterward, Kristin Grandzol said in a text message: “I am disappointed with the plea deal. I was hoping for 1st or 2nd degree murder. ... If this is the best we could get, I’ll take it. No amount of time will ever feel like enough. Nothing will bring Gerry back."

Earlier in court, Grandzol read to the judge letters in her daughters' names. As she read Rose’s letter, Pescatore held up an enlarged photo of a smiling Rose.

“He missed my first birthday, Halloween, Christmas, the first time I walked,” Grandzol read.

“Mom will have to tell me what death is,” she added.

In reading Violet’s letter, Grandzol said: “My dad was my best friend.” It went on to describe the night her dad was shot in front of her. “I was still strapped in my car seat," Grandzol read. “I’ve never been so scared. I still don’t understand why he can’t come back, and where he is.”

The girls were not in the courtroom.

During the hearing, Roberts looked down at the defense table, emotionless.

Afterward, in a soft voice that began as a mumble, he said he was sorry. “I didn’t want none of that to happen,” he said. “I had no control of it. I just want to say that I apologize for what happened.”

His attorney, Michael Medway, earlier told the judge that his client didn’t know that his younger brother would shoot anybody.

The judge called the shooting “senseless and outrageous.”

During the hearing, the judge, in the company of the lawyers, viewed a video with audio of the shooting in a private room. In sentencing Roberts, he told him that in the video, “you look to me like a very willing participant in this crime."

Patrick Casey, a friend of Grandzol’s since age 5, described him as a “relentless uniter of people." He said he had been “haunted” by his closest friend’s death. “The coldblooded murder of Gerry Grandzol cut the central thread" that connected so many people, he said.

Cathleen Grandzol told the judge that her brother “was smart, witty, and had a way to be a smart aleck without anyone being offended.” Crying, she spoke about how her brother’s death has impacted her family. She also recalled that on the day her daughter was born, her brother quickly showed up in the hospital.

“I knew he wanted to be a dad,” she said, as Kristin Grandzol sat in the gallery crying.

Grandzol was shot about 8 p.m. Sept. 7, 2017, after he and Violet returned with their sheepdog, Oscar, from Lemon Hill in Fairmount Park, where they had been playing Frisbee and taking pictures. He had parked his Audi SUV outside his home when the brothers confronted him, authorities said.

The Roberts brothers had taken the subway from their home on the 3300 block of Sydenham Street in Tioga intending to rob someone, authorities said. They saw Grandzol getting out of his SUV on Melon Street.

Maurice Roberts carried a backpack with a 9mm pistol inside. Marvin, then 16, allegedly grabbed the pistol from the backpack and confronted Grandzol outside his vehicle, demanding his wallet.

Grandzol willingly handed over his wallet. But when Marvin Roberts demanded the keys to the SUV, Grandzol asked to get his daughter out of the back seat.

Pescatore told the judge that Maurice Roberts could be heard on the video saying, “We don’t care.”

Marvin Roberts said, “No,” and fired two shots into Grandzol’s face, killing him, authorities said.

After the shooting, the brothers were caught on subway surveillance video laughing, Pescatore said.

Police Crime Scene Unit Officer John Taggart was able to retrieve Maurice Roberts' palm print from a bench, and Homicide Detectives John McNamee and Joseph Bamberski got a statement from Roberts after he was located at a New Jersey hotel two days after the shooting, Pescatore said.

In addition to third-degree murder, Roberts pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. In exchange, the District Attorney’s Office dropped charges of first- and second-degree murder, which would have carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison if Roberts was convicted of either charge.