Pennsylvania: Man says guilty plea in 4 deaths unappreciated

EASTON, Pa. (AP) -- A man facing either life in prison without parole or the death penalty in the stabbing deaths of his girlfriend and three other people says he hopes eastern Pennsylvania jurors who started hearing evidence to decide his fate Monday give him credit for taking responsibility for the killings. Thirty-seven-year-old Michael Eric Ballard pleaded guilty last month to killing 39-year-old Denise Merhi, her father, grandfather and a neighbor in a grisly rampage in Northampton on June 26. Police say the victims were stabbed a total of 88 times. Ballard was released from prison in 2006 after serving more than 15 years for a 1991 murder in which he slit a man's throat and stole his car. Ballard last week sought to delay Monday's proceedings so they would not be held on Merhi's birthday, but a Northampton County judge denied the request. He told The (Allentown) Morning Call in a letter dated April 27 that he feels his guilty plea was unappreciated by people including relatives of the victims. "You see, the reality of what that (guilty plea) hearing represented and really meant is lost on those that want to call me a 'sick bastard,' a 'mad dog,' 'cold blooded,' and so on," Ballard wrote. "Because if I was that 'cold-blooded monster,' I would have kept pursuing a trial." That, he said, would have meant relatives and friends of the victims testifying and "facing a barrage of questions solely intended on impeaching, discrediting and destroying the character and images of those four individuals" as well as displaying crime scene and autopsy photos. "But I didn't choose to do that, from the get-go I've accepted my responsibility and have only wanted to explain," he wrote. "... My guilty plea should have been seen for what it is, me, regretfully saying I've killed these four people. And at the same time initiating closure and the healing process, for EVERYONE INVOLVED." But Geraldine Dorwart, the mother of Merhi, who is raising the victim's 14-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter, says Ballard will always be a "monster" to her and her family. She and her niece, Shelly Youwakim, said he comes across in court as flippant, "smirking and laughing and having a good old time." "He thinks he's on vacation, asking the (sheriff's) officers to get him coffee," Dorwart said, speaking of a remark Ballard was overheard making in court Tuesday. "It's like a field trip," Youwakim said. Published: Tue, May 10, 2011