Two-time killer’s verdict swift: death penalty

Bill Gang

Friday, Dec. 18, 1998 | 11:26 a.m.

The jury that agonized during 11 hours of deliberations before convicting Gregory Leonard of murder was visibly shaken and angered when his penalty hearing began and it was revealed he had killed before.

It took the same jury fewer than two hours Thursday to decide that Leonard should get the death sentence for the strangulation slaying of Tony Antee. Leonard also received the death sentence after his first conviction.

Leonard's prior murder conviction was kept by law from the jury as they were deciding his guilt or innocence, because revealing it could unfairly influence the jury toward conviction. But such information is permissible at the penalty phase.

Leonard, 33, declined to give a statement asking for mercy in District Judge Michael Douglas' courtroom. At the defendant's request, defense attorneys declined to present any witnesses.

Deputy Special Public Defender Peter LaPorta said the odds were always against Leonard receiving a life prison sentence rather than death from the jury. He said that national statistics show the death penalty is handed down 84 percent of the time when there is a prior murder conviction.

Leonard showed no emotion when the verdict was read.

Antee's murder was discovered when police raided Leonard's apartment on Twain Avenue on Jan. 22, 1995, to arrest him for the murder a few weeks earlier of 65-year-old Thomas Williams, who was robbed of a few pieces of jewelry and some guns.

While searching the apartment where a party had been ongoing, police discovered Antee's body by seeing his feet sticking out from under Leonard's bed.

It took three tries for prosecutors to convict Leonard of Antee's murder.

Leonard's first trial for the Antee murder ended with the jury hung 11-1 in favor of conviction.

The second trial ended in a mistrial, when a witness blurted out information about the Williams murder, which was not legally admissible.

Before he could be tried a third time, he went to trial for the Williams murder and was convicted.