By David Hurst
The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
SOMERSET, Pa. — Former SCI-Somerset inmate Paul Kendrick was sentenced to death Wednesday for a corrections sergeant’s 2018 murder.
Senior Judge Patrick Kiniry also sentenced Kendrick to two consecutive life prison sentences for assaults against corrections officers, including the late Sgt. Mark Baserman, adding the Pittsburgh native’s total to three.
Kendrick, 30, made no statement in court prior to receiving his capital sentence, which was issued by a jury earlier this summer and reviewed by Kiniry prior to Wednesday’s Somerset County court hearing.
Corrections officers’ duties in prison involve protecting the community inside – “but in your case,” Kiniry told Kendrick, “members ... of the prison system needed protection from you.”
Moments earlier, Somerset County District Attorney Molly Metzgar urged for a death sentence as the only possible remaining option to protect society from Kendrick.
She outlined criminal acts committed by Kendrick dating back to when he was 12 years old to illustrate times the justice system gave him opportunities to change his ways.
One juvenile case involved a weapon discharged while being pursued by police.
Another involved drug acts, she said. Kendrick was also given opportunities in prison, even after he was sentenced to life behind bars a first time for killing a young man after they played basketball in 2014.
Baserman was fatally beaten over a towel that was confiscated from Kendrick earlier that day for violating prison rules, jurors were told during trial.
Prison security cameras recorded the attack, which saw Kendrick end the beating with a sprinting kick to Baserman’s head.
“He stalked Sgt. Baserman like prey,” Metzgar said. “The only way to stop him from killing again is for the state to execute him.”
“(It is) the only sentence that will truly protect society,” she added.
Metzgar also noted how the 2018 murder robbed Baserman’s family of a husband, father and grandfather – and that his widow, Rebecca, lost her “soulmate” that day.
Kendrick showed no obvious emotion in court. His defense attorneys – Tim Burns, Edward “E.J.” Rymsza and Kenneth Sottile – only had a brief statement during sentencing, calling the proceeding “a dark day.”
Rymsza said that Kendrick, instead of making a public statement, wrote an “apology letter” that was turned over to the court Wednesday. It was not read aloud in court.
“This was an unfortunate situation,” Burns said after the hearing. “He didn’t intend to kill Sgt. Baserman.”
Kendrick acknowledged his attorneys explained his appeal rights, as well as his right to file post-sentence motions before the hearing concluded.
Burns said those appeals will be forthcoming, and that defense attorneys plan on filing post-sentence motions for Kiniry to consider before the upcoming deadline.
By law, the defense has 10 days to file those motions.
“There will be appeals,” Burns added. “There will be appeals at the state and federal levels.”
And in Pennsylvania, consecutive governors, including current Gov. Josh Shapiro, have placed a moratorium on executions.
Kendrick heads to death row as one of 94 inmates with a capital sentence – and one of just three under the age of 35 years old, records show.
Metzgar said her office cannot control when or even if Kendrick would be executed by the state.
But that had no impact on how her office prosecuted the case, she said, noting it was about ensuring “justice was served.”
She said she was thankful Kiniry “saw this case for what it was” – and the need to protect society.
That included the judge’s sentence issuing two more consecutive life sentences without parole against Kendrick, she said. In doing so, it could ensure he would spend the rest of his life behind bars even if an issue would be raised with one of his convictions – related to his Somerset or separate Allegheny County cases.
Those life sentences stemmed from assault by a life prisoner convictions related to the attacks on Baserman and Officer William McDowell.
Kiniry also gave Kendrick a 10- to 20-year sentence for aggravated assault against Baserman and nearly four years for the assault on McDowell.
Kendrick is one of just two men from the region serving a death sentence in Pennsylvania. The other is Stephen Rex Edmiston, who was sentenced in Cambria County for a toddler’s rape and murder in 1989. No other Somerset County convicts are on death row.
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