Pittsburgh man guilty of killing 3 in Homewood

The evidence, the judge said, was "compelling and uncontradicted."

Video, blood and ballistics put Ronald Steave inside the Hamilton Avenue home early on the morning of Dec. 31, 2021.

And then, when he fled, the judge continued, there was more evidence of "flight, concealment and elimination."

"While not elaborate and masterful, it was certainly copious and compelling," said Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski.

Citing that evidence — and discounting the defense theory of murder-suicide — he found Steave, 32, guilty of three counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday following a two-day non-jury trial.

The victims, Nandi Fitzgerald, 28, her son, Denzel "Buddy" Nowlin Jr., 12, and Tatiana Hill, 28, were killed around 4 a.m.

Videos taken from just 90 minutes before the shootings showed Fitzgerald, Hill and Steave laughing and having fun together.

"Something went horribly wrong between Mr. Steave and Nandi Fitzgerald," he continued. "In that circumstance, Mr. Steave executed her in the foyer of her home, and in an act of self-preservation and cowardice, went upstairs and executed 12-year-old Denzel Nowlin ... and Tatiana Hill."

It was, the judge said, "a trilogy of murders."

The defendant will be sentenced in February to life in prison with no chance for parole.

Prosecutors initially said they would seek a death sentence for Steave. Last month, as trial was approaching, the Allegheny County District Attorney's office withdrew that notice.

Then, when the jury trial was scheduled to start on Nov. 1, defense attorney Frank Walker told the court that morning that his client was opting for a bench trial — in which the judge would determine the verdict.

Over just a day and a half, Deputy District Attorney Alison Bragle called 26 witnesses and admitted nearly 400 exhibits that, she argued, showed beyond a reasonable doubt that Steave was the killer.

Among the evidence, casings at the crime scene matched ammunition recovered in Steave's home and car; video evidence showed him arriving at Fitzgerald's house earlier that night; and additional surveillance cameras and license-plate reading cameras showed Steave's car leaving the scene that night.

He left his car in McKeesport and fled to Georgia before returning to the Pittsburgh area.

He wasn't arrested for nearly three months.

Walker cited a Dec. 17, 2021, text message and Fitzgerald's contact wound to argue that she killed her son and Hill first, before turning the gun on herself.

But Borkowski discounted that theory, noting that Fitzgerald's injury was on the left side of her neck, and she was right handed.

"It's not corroborated from evidence by any other source," the judge said. "Ms. Fitzgerald was clearly not troubled, despondent or exhibiting any suicidal tendencies the morning of her death. Instead, it was exactly the opposite."

Hill and Fitzgerald had been friends since sixth grade. Hill's mother, Deatra Morton-Searcy, said her daughter was there that night to help cheer up Fitzgerald, whose younger son drowned in a hotel pool at Hershey Park in June of 2021.

Morton-Searcy described her daughter as loving and caring.

Hill, who graduated from Penn Hills High School, was supposed to start nursing school the month after she was killed. She had two children Morton-Searcy is now raising.

"I'm supposed to be grandma, not mom," she said .

Wanda Fitzgerald, Nandi Fitzgerald's mother, said she was satisfied with the verdict. She is happy Steave will spend the rest of his life in prison and did not want him to get the death penalty.

"We knew that he did it," she said. "We just had a long wait."

Throughout the trial, the Fitzgerald family wore blue and purple, representing Buddy's favorite color, blue, and Nandi's, which was purple.

Nandi's family on Tuesday described her as the life of every party.

"She would fake being drunk to be silly," her mom said.

She loved to twerk, to dance, to cook.

She wanted to operate a food truck and started a business, Mama Nan's Wings and Things.

Buddy had a passion for sports — football was his favorite.

He was book smart, could rap and loved his brothers.

"Two lives cut short for no reason — senseless," said Daria Fitzgerald, Nandi's aunt.