Torture killer sentenced to death By Erin Emery

Denver Post Southern Colorado Bureau



Sept. 7, 2000 - COLORADO SPRINGS - George Woldt, the man who instigated the torturous rape and murder of a college student, was sentenced to death by lethal injection Wednesday by a three-judge panel. Woldt, 23, had no outward reaction upon learning at 1:45 p.m. that he will join six other men on Colorado's death row. If his appeals fail, he will be strapped to a gurney and poisoned to death for a crime that shocked the Colorado Springs community. On April 29, 1997, Woldt and Lucas Salmon, 23, grabbed Jacine Gielinski around her waist while she was standing outside her boyfriend's apartment and dragged her into a car. They sped away to an elementary school parking lot, where they took turns raping her. They slit her throat, stabbed her in the chest and smothered her. Finally, they shoved mud into her vagina to cover up DNA evidence and slung her nude body under a van. Gielinski, a student at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, was 22. Salmon is serving life without parole. "The panel was struck by the senseless brutality inflicted by Woldt and Salmon on Jacine Gielinski," the three-judge panel wrote in a 62-page decision. "She was forced to suffer unspeakable pain and anguish during the time that she was held hostage. The kidnappers wholly ignored her pleas for mercy and the pitiful suffering she was enduring at their hands. It is obvious that Jacine Gielinski was merely a physical object to Woldt and Salmon, necessary to act out their mutual fantasy to kidnap, rape and kill, leaving no room for the least amount of human compassion for her plight. "The fact that they apparently exchanged "high fives' at the conclusion of Jacine's killing speaks volumes of their lack of humanity toward her." Judges Richard Hall, Larry Schwartz and Douglas Anderson found that the cruelty of the crime outweighed mitigating factors that included Woldt's age, lack of a prior conviction and extensive cooperation with law enforcement. Defense attorneys Douglas Wilson and Terri Brake had argued that Woldt's life should be spared because he had a lesion in the thalamus area of his brain that impaired his judgment, suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, was abused as a child and had become a Christian since he was incarcerated three years ago. "There was finally justice for Jacine today," said Peggy Luiszer of Littleton, the victim's mother. "Bless her, wherever she's at." Asked about the differences in Woldt and Salmon's sentences, Luiszer said: "I put myself in their place. ... Would you rather stay in prison until you die or go ahead and get it over with, and I think Woldt kind of lucked out. That's the way I feel about it." Appeals could take seven or eight years. During that time, Woldt will live at the Colorado State Penitentiary in an 81.6-square-foot cell that has a single, 1-inch-by-24-inch window. He will be allowed out of his cell for one hour a day to shower or exercise. "I hope he's scared," Luiszer said. "I hope for the next seven years he's scared every day. And when the time comes that he is put to death, I hope he remembers how he treated Jacine and maybe how she felt that night. Like I said, what goes around comes around." Asked whether she would attend the execution should the appeals fail, she said: "You bet." The others on Colorado's death row are Frank Rodriguez, Nathan Dunlap, Robert Harlan, Francisco Martinez Jr. and William "Cody" Neal. It was the first death sentence to be handed down in El Paso County. Fourth Judicial District Attorney Jeanne Smith thanked Dave Young, Dan Zook and Gordon Denison, the attorneys who handled the case. "George Woldt's conscious choices to rape, torture and murder Jacine Gielinski warranted nothing but the most severe penalty under the law," Smith said. "We appreciate the gravity of the decision that faced the three judges. ... We do not rejoice in seeing another person die, but it is truly the only just punishment for someone like George Woldt who was willing to rape, torture and murder, merely for the sport of killing and for personal pleasure." Defense attorneys Wilson and Brake slipped out of the courthouse after the verdict was read and could not be reached for comment. Bob Salmon, father of Lucas Salmon, was in the courtroom. "I just feel bad for the Luiszers," he said. "They truly have a great loss that can never be replaced. "I think the sentence is fair. Quite frankly, if my son had received the death penalty, that would have been fair." Copyright 2000 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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Six sentenced The state legislature voted in 1995 to remove life-and-death decisions from the 12-member juries that historically had sentenced convicted criminals in capital-murder cases. Prior to Wednesday, six murderers had been sentenced under Colorado's three-judge death-penalty system, two of them to death: Danny N. Martinez Jr. was convicted in Jefferson County in February 1999 of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault on a child for the gang rape and killing of 14-year-old Brandy Duvall. He was sentenced May 7 to life in prison without parole. Francisco Martinez Jr. was convicted in September 1998 of first-degree murder, rape, kidnapping, conspiracy and sexual assault on a child in Duvall's death. He was sentenced in Jefferson County to death by lethal injection on May 27. William "Cody' Neal pleaded guilty in Jefferson County in February 1999 to bludgeoning to death three women - Rebecca Holberton, Candace Wallace and Angela Fite - and raping a fourth woman in July 1998. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection on Sept. 19. Jacques Richardson was convicted in Denver of first-degree murder and burglary in March for the killing of Capitol Hill resident Janey Benedict. He was already serving sentences of 216 years for convictions on two other rapes. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole May 7. Robert Lee Riggan Jr. was convicted in Jefferson County in October 1998 of the rape and first-degree murder of 21-year-old Anita Paley. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole on April 16. Lucas Salmon was convicted in El Paso County in March of the first-degree murder, rape and kidnapping of Colorado Springs college student Jacine Gielinski, 22. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole on June 24. `



