Trial begins in hotel-room killing

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, Sept. 11, 2003 | 9:41 a.m.

Jurors in District Court heard opening arguments Wednesday in the case of a Pennsylvania man charged with killing a tourist in a hotel room and leaving his body hidden under a bed.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz told jurors that Kenneth Grant and his girlfriend, Paulette Perry, killed 44-year-old David Sygnarski at the now defunct Maxim hotel on April 24, 2001.

Grant, 35, of Greensburg, Pa., faces multiple felony charges, including murder, robbery and attempt robbery in connection with the killing.

Schwartz said Perry lured Sygnarski, of Easton, Pa. to the hotel with plans "to party." Sygnarski had no idea that Grant was waiting in the room, he said.

Sygnarski's body was found under a bed in the room the next day. His body was wrapped in garbage bags and he had multiple stab wounds.

Schwartz said the killing was motivated by the couple's addiction to crack cocaine. Sygnarski's wallet and other personal possessions were stolen, he said.

"It is the state's theory that the defendant and his girlfriend were looking for money or drugs or both," he said.

Schwartz said the couple robbed and killed Sygnarski and then left the hotel and returned with cleaning supplies, which they used to clean up evidence in the room.

Surveillance tapes obtained from the hotel show the pair walking through the casino with several large bags. The couple's fingerprints were not found in the room.

But Grant's attorney, Deputy Special Public Defender Alzora Jackson, told jurors that her client was not in the room when Sygnarski was killed.

She said Grant left Perry and Sygnarski in the room to make a "dope run" and when he came back the door was locked.

"Kenny doesn't know what happened in that room because he wasn't there," she said.

Jackson said Sygnarski was a homeless man who was also a crack cocaine addict, just like her client.

She said her client does not contest that he helped Perry clean the hotel after the murder. That does not mean, however, that Grant is Sygnarski's killer, she said.

"It's upsetting and it's a lot of things, but it's not murder," she said.

Perry, 35, is serving two life sentences in connection with Sygnarski's death. Testimony in the case was expected to continue this morning before District Judge John McGroarty.