By Bruce Cadwallader and Kathy Lynn Gray
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Calling him a pariah who killed without reason, Judge John F. Bender sentenced 20-year-old Jamal Sealy to life in prison with no chance of parole, then added 94 years for other crimes.
The sentencing yesterday came just hours after a Franklin County Common Pleas jury concluded that Sealy was responsible for an East Side crime spree that included the March 25 murder of Daniolo Perez, an African immigrant working as a gas-station clerk.
Sealy shot Perez, also known as Madi Ceesay, point-blank in the neck while demanding cash at the Marathon station at 2851 E. Livingston Ave. The killing was caught on videotape, which was shown to the jury during Sealy’s four-day trial.
“There are no words to describe this heinous crime,” Bender said before giving Sealy the maximum sentences for the aggravated murder and for multiple counts of aggravated robbery, robbery and kidnapping, all committed with a gun between Jan. 14 and May 22.
Before the sentencing, Sealy, of Elaine Place, stood as if to speak, then nodded his head slowly and sat back down without uttering a word.
Perez’s brother, Moussa Sow, said after the sentencing he was glad Sealy was off the streets.
“But there’s nothing we can do to get our brother back,” Sow said.
Assistant County Prosecutors Doug Stead and David Zeyen called on numerous witnesses who testified that Sealy waved a gun at them while demanding money and products during the robberies.
In addition to his crimes at the Marathon station, Sealy was found guilty of robbing the Bruce Lee Dragon Restaurant, 3777 E. Livingston Ave.; the Mobil gas station at 1466 S. Hamilton Rd.; and the ComStation cell phone store, 2272 S. Hamilton Rd., on two occasions.
After the first robbery, at the Bruce Lee restaurant Jan. 14, a determined Columbus police officer followed a suspect’s footprints in the snow to Sealy’s apartment door. Police didn’t have enough evidence then to arrest Sealy.
Eventually, police and homicide detective Vincent Houpe linked the crimes to Sealy and his dark-green Chevrolet. He was arrested May 22 in that car with a gun and items stolen from the Mobil station.
Police also found a long-barreled .22-caliber pistol -- a near-perfect ballistics match to the gun used to kill Perez, 48.
Defense attorney Thomas Beal argued that the victims’ identifications were suspect because of the brief time they spent with their attacker.
He said the police evidence was circumstantial and the videotapes do not clearly show the face of the gunman.
Sealy did not testify.
The jury deliberated less than three hours before reaching the verdicts.
Copyright 2009 The Columbus Dispatch