SOMERSET, Pa. – Paul Jawon Kendrick was sentenced to death Thursday for an SCI-Somerset corrections sergeant’s 2018 murder.
Kendrick, 30, showed no emotion as a Somerset County jury of nine women and three men issued the verdict after more than three hours of deliberation.
In court, jurors indicated that the penalty phase of the three-week capital case was somewhat complicated by two opposing circumstances — Kendrick’s pattern of violent acts and his past as a victim of abuse.
But even though Kendrick’s traumatic childhood was a valid “mitigating factor,” it didn’t outweigh the fact that the state prison inmate assaulted and killed Sgt. Mark Baserman while already serving a life prison sentence for a 2014 murder, their verdict showed.
Baserman’s widow, Rebecca Lynn Baserman, spent all nine days of the two-phase trial in court and sat less than 15 feet behind Kendrick as jurors stood one at a time and verified their verdict.
Her daughter, Jacqueline Holbay, embraced her as she rose to stand in court.
‘Voices were heard’The case concluded seven years and two months after Mark Baserman was fatally injured by Kendrick inside SCI-Somerset in an attack over a confiscated towel.
Video shown in court showed Kendrick sucker-punch the 60-year-old guard on Feb. 15, 2018, and hit him with a flurry of strikes to the head before fighting off another guard’s attempt to stop the attack.
The 20-second-long assault ended with Kendrick delivering a sprinting kick to Baserman’s head. A forensic pathologist told the jury in March that Baserman suffered irreparable brain damage. He died in the hospital 11 days later.
Somerset County District Attorney Molly Metzgar said nothing can undo the attack’s tragic consequences, but Thursday’s unanimous verdict “served a measure of justice for the Baserman family and the law enforcement community.”
“We wanted to do everything in our power to ensure their voices were heard,” she said, crediting the jury for taking its role seriously over a multi-week span.
Rebecca Baserman declined comment, saying she was not yet ready to address the ruling.
Kendrick shrugged his shoulders as he was escorted out of the Somerset County Courthouse and asked by The Tribune-Democrat for his reaction.
“Stunned,” he said in a muted tone, shaking his head.
Defense attorney Edward “E.J.” Rymsza said he was “incredibly disappointed” by the decision.
Rymsza, who represented Kendrick alongside Cambria County defense attorney Kenneth Sottile for the death penalty phase of the trial, declined to comment further, but said they will appeal.
“We’ll be back for post-conviction,” Rymsza said.
Closing arguments
Standing before jurors four hours earlier, Rymsza said there was no disputing any of the four aggravating factors that legally support a death sentence for Kendrick.
Kendrick was already serving a sentence of life in prison without parole for a 2014 Pittsburgh murder when he attacked Baserman at SCI–Somerset and caused his death. Baserman was on duty that day.
But Rymsza implored jurors to look for an explanation behind Kendrick’s pattern of violence. He referred to testimony this week that Kendrick was born into a poverty-stricken home with abusive parents who neglected him and his sisters.
Multi-generation abuse and an absentee father, rather than love and support, defined his family — inflicting childhood trauma that often manifests itself as future aggression, depression and drug use, a psychologist said.
“As parents … we protect (our children). We guide them. … We know they are influenced by their environment,” Rymsza said, referencing what he said were signs that Kendrick could have grown to be a far better person if he had been raised under different circumstances.
“Each and every one of us is worth more than the worst they’ve ever done in life,” the defense attorney added, requesting mercy for Kendrick.
But Somerset County Trial Deputy Christina DeMarco-Breeden told jurors that there was no evidence Kendrick’s acts were involuntary. In her closing argument, she referenced a 2019 surveillance video that showed an agitated Kendrick describing feeling like he woke up “wanting to kill.”
DeMarco-Breeden reminded jurors that death sentences aren’t something prosecutors can seek for any reason. They are “reserved for the worst of the worst,” she said, calling Baserman’s death a senseless and “cold-hearted” killing.
“This is a poster case … for the death penalty,” DeMarco-Breeden told jurors.
Regardless of the challenges he faced as a youth, DeMarco-Breeden said, Kendrick decided that “a towel worth a few dollars was worth more than Mark Baserman’s life.”
Sentencing on slateAttorneys will have to return for a formal sentencing hearing later this spring.
Because a unanimous jury verdict decides the punishment in a Pennsylvania capital case, a pre-sentence report to determine Kendrick’s punishment is a formality. But Rymsza told Kiniry that Kendrick was opting against waiving the report.