Cleveland: Evil Brillo-Haired Savage on Trial for Murdering White Car Dealership Owners

Joseph McAlpin.

It’s a death penalty case, and he’s representing himself in court.

It’s tempting to laugh, but…

What color are the jury?

Cleveland:

Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola wanted to close up their used car dealership and pick up fish dinners for their two kids before they returned home on Good Friday.

Before they finished, Joseph McAlpin carried out a plan to steal cars to turn into quick cash, killing the Euclid couple along the way, a prosecutor said Tuesday during opening statements in McAlpin’s capital murder trial.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Russ Tye said that McAlpin shot the two at close range and tried to cover his tracks by stealing the dealership’s video surveillance system. He left behind DNA evidence that linked him to the April 14, 2017 slayings at Mr. Cars Inc. dealership in Collinwood that set off an uproar in the community, Tye said.

“Joseph McAlpin went into Mr. Cars and did the unimaginable,” Tye said. “He brutally murdered and viciously shot Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola.”

McAlpin, in a rarity for a death-penalty case, is representing himself in the trial in front of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Brian Corrigan. McAlpin denied committing the crime in his opening statement.

Tye said along with DNA, cellphone data and surveillance video show that McAlpin, 31, carried out the shootings of Kuznik and Tomola, who left behind three children between the ages of 6 and 19.

Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola.