The Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office seeks to put to death the man accused of killing two women in a vicious machete attack at the Hotel Jermyn.
Michael Woods, 28, who had an apartment on the building’s sixth floor, approached Linda Fortuna and Terry M. Muller near the floor’s elevator before slashing them to death on Dec. 9, prosecutors say.
He went on to slash another resident, sending her to the hospital, prosecutors say. Marilyn Waller lived, but had serious injuries and is still undergoing treatment.
Woods is also accused of killing a golden retriever service dog.
Police say after committing the bloody crimes, Woods got on the elevator and left the building through the front door, all the while swinging the machete.
Officers found Woods walking near the intersection of Biden Street and Wyoming Avenue. He told police he smoked a hallucinogenic drug that day, according to the criminal complaint.
At a press conference following the deaths, Gallagher said it has been very difficult for officers responding to the blood-filled scene, describing surveillance video depicting it as “horrific.”
“Following a comprehensive review of the evidence, the law, and the statutory aggravatingcircumstances permitted under Pennsylvania law, I formally filed a notice of my intent to seek the death penalty against Michael Woods for the brutal acts that occurred in December at the Hotel Jermyn Apartments. The decision to seek the death penalty carries extraordinary weight and responsibility,” Gallagher said in a release. “My staff and I did not take this decision lightly, but when the facts, as alleged, reveal violence and cruelty of this magnitude, the justice system must respond with accountability. We strongly believe that the singular depravity exhibited by Mr. Woods warrants this measured decision.”
Pennsylvania has a moratorium on executions imposed by former Gov. Tom Wolf in February 2015. Gov. Josh Shapiro announced in February 2023 that he would continue the moratorium on executions, pledging to sign a reprieve for any execution warrant that reaches his desk, citing a fallible system.
In 2020 in Lackawanna County, Cornelius Mapson, 34, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 5½ to 26 years, after the death penalty was withdrawn by prosecutors in exchange for a trial before a judge, rather than a jury.
Mapson was found guilty of killing confidential informant Nina Gatto in Scranton, to prevent her from testifying in a drug case.
There are about 100 inmates currently on death row in Pennsylvania, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Among that number is Eric Frein, found guilty in the 2014 homicide death of state Police Cpl. Bryon Dickson II outside the Blooming Grove barracks, Pike County.
Pennsylvania last executed a prisoner on July 6, 1999, when Gary Heidnik was put to death by lethal injection at the State Correctional Institution- Rockview. Heidnik, convicted of brutal kidnapping and murder, was the last of only three individuals executed in the state since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.