After decades of denial, man admits killing two when he was 15
SCRANTON — For the first time since the grisly 1981 murders of siblings Cheryl and Christopher Ziemba in Lackawanna County, Joseph Aulisio finally admitted he did it.
“The gun went off. Chris died,” Aulisio told Dr. Steven Samuel, a psychiatric expert for the prosecution, during a May 2018 prison interview that was recently made public. “I was so ... shocked. Then next, Cheryl died.”
The admission, recounted in an expert report Samuel prepared for the Lackawanna County District Attorney’s office, played a major role in his determination that the now 53year-old Aulisio can be rehabilitated. Aulisio was 15 years old at the time of the killings. Cheryl was 8, her brother, 4.
The finding is a key issue Lackawanna County Judge Vito Geroulo will consider Wednesday when he resentences Aulisio based on a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court mandate that declared automatic life sentences for juvenile killers unconstitutional.
In one of the most heinous crimes in Lackawanna County history, Aulisio was convicted in 1982 of fatally shooting Cheryl and Christopher inside the Aulisio family’s partially finished home in Old Forge on July 26, 1981. He then dumped their bodies in an abandoned strip mine, where they were found two days later. He was initially sentenced to death, but the sentence was overturned in 1987, and he was resentenced to life without parole.
Aulisio has served 38½ years. His attorney, Joseph D’Andrea, seeks a time-served sentence, which means Aulisio would be immediately eligible for parole.
Lackawanna County District Attorney Mark Powell argues Aulisio should be sentenced to 70 years — 35 years for each child, to be served consecutively.
By law, a judge can resentence a juvenile killer to life, but prosecutors must prove the defendant is so depraved that he or she can never be rehabilitated. Powell was forced to abandon that argument after Samuel determined Aulisio did not fit that profile.
In his sentencing brief, D’Andrea says evidence shows Aulisio did not intend to kill the Ziemba children and that he acted impulsively and out of fear when he tried to cover up their murders. D’Andrea also says Aulisio has shown genuine remorse and has taken significant steps to better himself in prison, earning his GED and learning carpentry.
“Joseph agonized for the crimes he committed, the loss of lives, the sadness for the Ziemba family and the shame he brought his own family for years,” D’Andrea says.
Samuel’s report, which was attached to D’Andrea’s sentencing brief, also cites Aulisio’s rehabilitative efforts and his good behavior in prison, noting he has had just nine misconduct reports for mostly minor infractions. Samuel said he was most impressed by Aulisio’s show of remorse.
“Mr. Aulisio was intermittently tearful during his evaluation. His sadness and mental pain was most evident ... when he admitted to his involvement in the killings,” Samuel wrote.
Powell and his co-counsel, assistant district attorneys Daniel Pillets and Bo Loughney, contend Aulisio’s admission is nothing more than a calculated attempt to deceive the court into believing he is reformed. For decades, Aulisio stuck to the story he was “framed,” Powell says in a sentencing brief.
“It was not until he was interviewed by a psychologist, some 35 years later, did he even attempt to utter an admission,” Powell says.
Even then, he showed no true remorse, Powell contends.
“His truncated, vague and non-specific statement is best described as a non-admission admission,” Powell says. “He said nothing about the horrific acts: how he planned the killing ... how he secreted their bodies, how he cleaned the murder scene . ... Why? He is devoid of sympathy or regret.”
Proof of Aulisio’s motivation is revealed in a July 8 note in a mental health evaluation, in which a prison employee said Aulisio stated he took responsibility for his crime because “he needed to in order to be eligible for resentencing,” Powell says.
Powell also refutes the defense’s contention that Aulisio’s actions were impulsive, saying evidence shows he was a cold, calculated killer.
Christopher was killed first by a shotgun blast to the chest. Aulisio then tracked Cheryl down and shot her in the back of the head as she cowered in a bedroom closet. Next he cleaned blood from the home, threw their bodies in the back of his car and dumped them at the strip mining pit “like trash,” Powell says.
“This is not the work of ‘the impulsive teenage brain’ but rather the calculated cunning of a thinking criminal,” Powell says.
Powell also contends evidence shows Aulisio still poses a danger to society. He said he plans to call employees from several state prisons where Aulisio has been housed. They will testify of his antisocial behavior and threats he made to staff, including one man who says Aulisio threatened to “blow him away with a shotgun” if he was ever released.
Powell said the children’s’ mother, Diane Ziemba, is still living, but he chose not to have her testify to spare her from having to relive the anguish of losing her children. He asks Geroulo to consider the impact Aulisio’s release would have on her.
“She lived for years at least knowing that their murderer would himself be executed only to learn that his fate would instead be life in prison,” Powell says in the sentencing brief. “Imagine now, some 38 years since their murder, being told that Joseph Aulisio may be released to walk the streets that her children will never know.”