TuesdayDecember 15, 2015Reading, Pennsylvania

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Ex-director
of theater
gets jail term

Executing Justice
DEATH PENALTY PERSPECTIVESPART THREE OF FIVE

Ministry of the condemned

Former leader of Birdsboro

group had contact with two boys
By Stephanie Weaver
Reading Eagle

A former community theater director convicted of sexually assaulting two teenage boys
told a Berks County judge
Monday that hes a good man
who made a mistake.
Judge Stephen B. Lieberman
said he believes Mark A. Drey
is the complete opposite.
Regardless, Lieberman accepted the plea agreement
between Assistant District
Mark A. Drey Attorney Carmen J. Bloom
and Allan L. Sodomsky, sentencing Drey to 412 to 10 years in state prison,
followed by seven years of probation.
The judge said he didnt like the sentence,
but wanted to honor the wishes of the victims
and their families.
Im not going to second-guess what they
believe is in the best interest of their children,
he said.
Drey, 57, of the 800 block of Fernleigh Place,
Exeter Township, pleaded guilty in September
to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse in
one case and unlawful contact with a minor
and endangering the welfare of children in
the other case.
Drey admitted he had inappropriate sexual
relationships with a 15-year-old boy in 2014
and a 14-year-old boy, whom he met through
the Alpha/Omega Players theater group in
Birdsboro, in 2012. Drey was a co-founder and
director of the group, but it was shut down in
September 2014 because of his charges.
Bloom said Drey took advantage of the victims at vulnerable points in their lives. She said
one victims mother said they felt they could
trust Drey, but later discovered he was a sexual
predator disguising himself as a mentor.
Authorities said Drey and the 15-year-old
boy, who participated in the theater group,
exchanged nude photos and sexually explicit
texts and Facebook messages. At least twice
in the summer of 2014, the two had sexual
contact in a dressing room at the theater.
The other victim contacted county detectives
after seeing reports of Dreys initial arrest.
In that case, Drey was the voice coach for
the 14-year-old boy at the theater in 2012. The
two had sexual conversations via Facebook
and, at least once, Drey performed a sex act
on the boy in a back room of the theater.
Authorities are unaware of other victims.
Drey was found to be a sexually violent predator and will have to register with authorities
for the rest of his life.
Contact Stephanie Weaver: 610-371-5042 or sweaver@
readingeagle.com.

Weather report
Clouds and sun; breezy,
mild; winds: 10-20 mph. A12

47 64

READING EAGLE: SUSAN L. ANGSTADT

A soon-to-be-executed inmate teaches

a clergyman much about faith.
By Nicole C. Brambila
Reading Eagle

TATE COLLEGE The Rev. Henry Harry Covert stood over the gurney and silently prayed.
Convicted killer Keith Zettlemoyer lay strapped
down, minutes from a lethal cocktail of barbiturates
and paralyzing drugs being injected into his veins.
Covert lingered a moment, a jumble of emotions. He
had just spent the day with Zettlemoyer, whom he
now calls a friend, and what would be the convicted
killers nal hours.

Zettlemoyer looked up
at Covert and asked, What
will you tell people about tonight?
Covert was caught off guard.
He had fervently prayed for
their meeting and about being a vessel for the Lord to
minister to Zettlemoyer. He
had prayed for Gods peace
to settle on Zettlemoyer as
the killers last hours wound
down and his execution
neared. But he had not considered what would happen
afterward. Covert thought,

What an odd question.

I have no idea, Covert told
Zettlemoyer, who was then
wheeled into the execution
chamber at Rockview State
Prison.
Minutes later at 10:25 p.m.
on May 2, 1995, Zettlemoyer
was pronounced dead.
Zettlemoyer, 39, was the
first of three inmates executed in the commonwealth
since capital punishment was
reinstated in 1978. Pennsylvanias governors, however,
[ See Life lessons >>> A4 ]

The Rev. Henry Harry Covert recalls his

remarkable
experience
working with
a convicted
killer who was
about to be
executed.

T O DAY
Berks & Beyond

Money

Sports

Life

SWATTING THESE FLIES

IS HARDLY SIMPLE

DRAFTING A PLAN
FOR SUCCESSION

BRADFORDS RETURN
HAS FUELED EAGLES

HE SAW SURGERY
IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT

Bill Meister has found a

partner to eventually take
the reins of his homegrown
architecture business. A10

Sam Bradford, back from an

injury, has led the Birds to
two straight wins and kept
them in the playoff race. C1

And that light was dimmer,

albeit simpler and cheaper,
when he ran a hospital department in the 50s. D1

Officials led by state Sen. Judy Schwank meet

to discuss containment of the invasive spotted
lanterny spotted last year in Berks. B1
Index
ADVICE
BRIDGE

D9
D10

CLASSIFIED
C10
COMICS
D6D8
HOROSCOPE
D8

MONEY
OBITUARIES
OPINION

A10
B5B7
B8

PUZZLES
TV TONIGHT

D8
D5

2015 READING EAGLE COMPANY

A4

Tuesday, December 15, 2015 Reading Eagle, Reading, Pa.

Executing Justice

Life lessons for witness to death

Death penalty perspectives

[ From A1 >>> ]
have signed more than 400
death warrants the past three
decades. Those three executions have come to symbolize
all thats wrong with the death
penalty, which has cost taxpayers more than $350 million for a system that hasnt
executed anyone in 16 years.
Executing
Although
Covert was at a
loss ofJustice
words for Zettlemoyer
then,
lifeperspectives
lessons thrust
Deaththe
penalty
upon him two decades ago
in a holding cell 30 feet from
the execution chamber have
stayed with him as the years
rolled by.
Ive come to realize that the
worst of people can change,
said the 73-year-old retired
United Church of Christ minister and former cop, who now
lives in Mount Joy, Lancaster
County. Not all do, but God
wants all people to come to
repentance.
He didnt have an answer
for Zettlemoyer on the eve of
his execution, but today what
Covert tells people about the
hours he spent on death row
is as simple as it is profound:
In the darkest places in life
even in an execution chamber
we find the forgiveness and
the grace of almighty God.

Only shooting rats

Zettlemoyer turned the

1967 Ford van onto a dirt access road in the wee hours of
Oct. 13, 1980, near the Harrisburg railroad yards.
In the back of the van lay
his friend, Charles DeVetsco,
with two .22-caliber slugs in
his neck. Zettlemoyer parked,
then dragged DeVetsco, handcuffed and bleeding, into the
bushes in an unlit area used
for dumping trash.
In the bushes, Zettlemoyer
squeezed off two more rounds,
this time in DeVetscos back
with a .357 magnum.

Executing
Justice
About this series: A five-day
look at Pennsylvanias controversial death penalty system from the perspectives of
those it touches victims
families, a prosecutor and
defense attorney, judges and
the condemned.
Sunday: The widow of a slain
Reading police officer shares
her pain, and the convicted
killer apologizes.
Monday: A defense attorney
shares why he opposes the
death penalty.
Today: A former prison
chaplain talks about a convicted killers final hours before execution.
Wednesday: An exoneree makes peace with the 16
years he lost in prison, 10 on
death row.
Thursday: A murder victims
son extends forgiveness to
his familys killer.
Online at
readingeagle.com:
View an inter
active timeline of Reading
police officers killed in the
line of duty since 1900.
Watch a video about the
death penalty in Pennsylvania.
Listen to reporter Nicole
Brambila and photographer Susan L. Angstadt talk
about the series in a WEEU
interview.
Read our previous coverage on the death penalty.

The Associated Press

Keith Zettlemoyer, above, was

executed by lethal injection at
Rockview State Prison, right,
on May 2, 1995. At the time, he
was the first death row inmate
executed there since 1962.

Reading Eagle: Susan L. Angstadt

Two Conrail police officers

on routine patrol in the area
that morning heard the gunshots ring out. Hearing rustling noises in some overgrown
bushes in front of the van, they
ordered Zettlemoyer, then 25,
to come out. He emerged wearing dark clothes and gloves.
He also was armed to the hilt,
carrying a Smith and Wesson
revolver with 41 rounds of ammunition, a hunting knife and
a tear gas canister.
Whats the matter guys?
Zettlemoyer asked the officers,
according to court records. I
was only shooting rats.
At 4 oclock in the morning ? Officer Gregory W.
Benedek responded.
Yes, I do it all the time,
Zettlemoyer said.
Officers retraced Zettlemoyers path into the woods,
following the drag marks and
blood drippings. They found
DeVetscos still-trembling
body face down. DeVetsco,
30, was set to testify against
Zettlemoyer the following
week in a burglary trial. He
died of massive hemorrhaging,
his heart pierced by the .357
magnum bullets.
Prosecutors had offered
Zettlemoyer a plea bargain,
which he rejected, opting
rather to take his chances
with a jury.
At his murder trial, Zettlemoyer did not deny killing
DeVetsco. Instead, he presented a diminished-capacity defense. Recognized as
grounds for reducing charges,
diminished capacity is an unbalanced state of mind that
makes a person less culpable
for a crime.
A Dauphin County jury rejected Zettlemoyers defense
and sentenced him to death.

I am not crazy

A little more than a month

after taking office, Gov. Tom
Ridge signed three death
warrants including Zettlemoyers on Feb. 28, 1995,
with the promise to expedite
executions.
The other two condemned
inmates Martin Appel
and Josoph Henry, both
of Northampton County
would win new sentencing
trials and plead to life.
Zettlemoyer appealed his
case as well, but the courts
continued to uphold his sentence. After 14 years on death
row, Zettlemoyer dropped his
appeals and became the first
person in the commonwealth
to be executed since 1962,
when Elmo Smith sat in the
electric chair for the rape and
murder of a 16-year-old girl in
Montgomery County.
The mother of Zettlemoyers victim, Aldona DeVetsco,
filed a petition on behalf of

her sons killer to halt his execution. In a last-ditch effort,

Zettlemoyers attorney raised
claims that he was mentally ill,
meaning his execution would
amount to cruel and unusual
punishment.
Aldona DeVetsco, who died
in 2004, defended her opposition to the death penalty in
interviews calling capital punishment senseless vengeance.
Life is sacred, DeVetsco
once said in an interview with
a Philadelphia TV station. Its
about the only sacred thing on
Earth and no one has a right
to do away with it.
Not all of the DeVetsco
family shared the matriarchs
views, though.
I am not as principled as
mother was, said Daphne
DeVetsco, Charles DeVetscos
younger sister, who lives in
Lakewood, Ohio. Being a
liberal, I didnt believe in the
death penalty, until it touched
me.
Three days before his
scheduled execution, Zettlemoyer begged the court to
execute him.
If its stopped, sir, my 141/2
years of suffering will continue on in an unbroken chain
for maybe another 14, 20 or
25 years, Zettlemoyer said,
according to court transcripts.
The thought of all that is just
deeply disturbing.
Zettlemoyer further told
the three-judge panel that he
hoped it was apparent that
he was not mentally incompetent.
I am not crazy, Zettlemoyer said. Im not loony. I
understand perfectly whats
going on with my execution.

Nobody wants to be part

of an execution

Since opening a century ago,

351 men and two women have
been executed at Rockview.
The campus houses more
than 2,300 inmates and is
located roughly 140 miles
northwest of Reading in Centre County.

Built to ease prison overcrowding and opened in 1915,

the medium-security facility
sits on 4,300 acres, but is visible from the thoroughfare.
Its main building is an imposing but elegant structure
on a manicured lawn facing
a tree-lined street less than
2 miles from Nittany Mall in
State College.
Though the facility does not
house death row inmates, all
executions in Pennsylvania
are carried out at Rockview.
While Covert served as
chaplain at Rockview, the
execution team ran through
detailed simulation drills in
the chamber that included
strapping a prison employee
in the electric chair.
Every time a warrant was
signed by the governor we
went through a drill, Covert
said.
Zettlemoyer would not be
electrocuted, but in the weeks
leading up to his execution,
prison staff practiced running through the protocols
and procedures. A few officials
even traveled to Texas the
nations death penalty capital
in preparation for the first
execution by lethal injection
in the commonwealth.
A condemned inmate in
Pennsylvania can choose
to have a family member or
spiritual leader stay with
them. Zettlemoyer chose a
chaplain.
A day before Zettlemoyer
arrived at Rockview, John
McCullough learned the inmate had requested to spend
his last day with a chaplain,
and that he would have to
find one.
McCullough, who was then
deputy superintendent for
treatment at Rockview, made
three or four frustrating calls
before he thought of Covert,
who had left in January to
pastor a church.
The churches didnt want
to touch it, McCullough said.
Nobody wants to be part of
an execution.

What made Covert so perfect for the job, more than

his experience with inmates,
McCullough said, was that he
wasnt preachy.
What this guy needs on his
way out is a companion, McCullough said. Harry can be
very reassuring.
The phone rang at Coverts home in Potters Mills,
an expansive property with
a stunning view of a hillside
dotted with horses, a quick
20-minute drive from Rockview. Despite his years ministering in prison, Covert wasnt
sure what to expect.
He met Zettlemoyer in a
holding cell on the second
floor after flipping through
his prison file to gain some
sense of the man.
What Covert found was a
repentant man, one with a
deep faith.
Covert said, I wasnt expecting someone who had
a sense of assurance and
peace.

Paid in full

Zettlemoyer had a bornagain experience on death

row a decade before giving
up his appeals.
Having spent 14 years in
solitary confinement, Zettlemoyer had never attended
a church service, never experienced being part of a community of believers. His faith,
on death row, was a solitary
one.
Zettlemoyer told Covert,
Youre my pastor now, until
I die.
The two spoke of many
things during those seven
hours, much of it lost to time
and fading memories. But
Covert does remember Zettlemoyer speaking candidly
about his drug abuse and
fondly about this family. They
chatted about the theological
implications of Zettlemoyer
giving up his appeals: Was it,
Zettlemoyer wondered, akin
to committing suicide?
And Zettlemoyer also

spoke of a haunting guilt.

Covert assumed Zettlemoyer was talking about the
murder. He wasnt, though.
In his book, Ministry to the
Incarcerated, Covert talks
about the torture Zettlemoyer
described, reliving the 1980
murder. But what also deeply
troubled Zettlemoyer was the
eternal consequences of killing DeVetsco.
Zettlemoyer told Covert, I
think when I took his life, that
I took away the possibility in
his own life to come to repentance and receive salvation.
Covert had gone to Rockview to minister to Zettlemoyer. But it was the condemned
inmate who ministered to
him, Covert said. Zettlemoyer
sung a capella hymns in his
cell, and he partook in Holy
Communion, a surreal experience Covert described as like
going to church.
And as his execution approached, Zettlemoyer told
Covert, I know where Im
going to spend eternity.
The first person in the commonwealth to be executed
in more than three decades,
Zettlemoyers execution made
national news with media
outlets describing the protesters who gathered outside
Rockview and the governors
mansion.
Inside the prison, from the
cell block windows, inmates
could be heard screaming at
corrections staff, Killers!
Zettlemoyer was afraid of
needles. A doctor gave him a
Valium so he wouldnt vomit.
Then a three-member injection team administered
the lethal cocktail in a tube
threaded in a 10-inch hole in
the wall in a separate room
where the executioners
watched Zettlemoyer through
a one-way mirror.
In a statement distributed
after his execution, Zettlemoyer wrote, in part, I ask that
the people of Pennsylvania
and the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania please accept
my 14 years of imprisonment
and my execution now as all
of my debt to society paid in
full.
A dozen witnesses, half of
whom were journalists, sat in
folding chairs behind a Plexiglas window watching Zettlemoyer rapidly breathe until
his face turned crimson.
Zettlemoyer could not
explain how he knew God
had forgiven him. But in his
book, Covert explains Gods
grace as clemency, quoting
Eph. 2:8-9: For it is by grace
you have been saved, through
faith and this is not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God
not by works, so that no one
can boast.
He was full of remorse, Covert said. He knew that many
people couldnt forgive him,
but that the Lord had forgiven
him.
Contact Nicole C. Brambila: 610-3715044 or nbrambila@readingeagle.com.

Pennsylvania executions
Pennsylvania has executed three people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978. In all three cases,
the condemned waived their appeals, asking the court for their execution be carried out. The executed inmates:
Keith Zettlemoyer was
convicted in Dauphin
County for the Oct. 13,
1980, murder of Charles
DeVetsco, a friend who
was a witness in a robbery trial against him.
Zettlemoyer, 33, begged
the court to let him die, saying, I see my
execution as an end of suffering to my
imprisonment. His execution was carried out May 2, 1995, making it the first
in Pennsylvania since 1962, when Elmo
Smith was put to death.

A Montgomery County
jury handed Leon Moser the death sentence
for the 1985 murder
of his ex-wife and two
children outside the St.
James Episcopal Church
on Palm Sunday. The
former Army lieutenant and one-time
seminary student pleaded guilty to the
killings, saying, I request the death penalty and that it be carried out as soon as
possible. Moser was executed Aug. 16,
1995.

Gary Heidnik, nicknamed the House of

Horrors killer, was given the death sentence
in Philadelphia County for the kidnap, rape
and torture of women he held prisoner in
his basement, two of whom died. He was
convicted on two counts of first-degree
murder and executed July 6, 1999.
Source: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
Photos: The Associated Press

READING EAGLE, READING, PA.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015

A5

Executing Justice

READING EAGLE: SUSAN L. ANGSTADT

Berks County Judge Linda K.M. Ludgate presided over the trial of Albert Perez, top right, who in 2009 was sentenced to death in the 2007 killings of Duceliz Diaz and her 5-year-old daughter, Kayla, in
Diazs Bernville apartment. Perezs case is under appeal.

The view from the bench

on capital punishment
Judges are hesitant
to throw their weight
behind the death
penalty, saying its
unevenly administered
and costly.
By Nicole C. Brambila
Reading Eagle

The scene was staged.

Tw e n t y- t w o y e a r o l d
Duceliz Diazs body was
hanged with an electrical
cord in a closet, and her
5-year-old daughter, strangled with her pajama bottoms, was hanged from a
bathroom towel rack.
The bodies were found Jan.
15, 2007, in Diazs Bernville
apartment.
Police arrested the womans ex-boyfriend, then
27-year-old Albert Perez, in
the murders, saying he tried
to cover it up by making the
scene look as though Diaz
had hanged her child and
committed suicide. An FBI
analysis would conclude
Perez faked the suicide note
after committing the murders.
The case went before
Berks County Judge Linda
K.M. Ludgate, now 73 and a
senior judge.

Perez, 34, was sentenced

to death in 2009. His case is
under appeal.
Ludgate has presided over
countless murder trials, about
a half-dozen of which were
capital cases. Only Perez received a death sentence, Ludgate said.
Because capital cases undergo automatic appeals
and the majority of the commonwealths condemned inmates have been ghting their
sentence for decades, many
judges are reluctant to talk
about the states death penalty system.
The courts opinion is irrelevant, Ludgate said, adding, I
follow what the law is.

Johnson, a retired Allegheny

County judge. If youre black
or youre poor whether
youre black or white the
likelihood is youre going to
get some swift justice and be

of murder are indigent, according to national studies.

Johnson added: Human
beings are fallible. People
make mistakes.
Johnson never presided
over any capital cases, for
which he is thankful.
I had two choices: either
impose it if the law says its
to be imposed or resign, he
said. I didnt know which
way I was going to go. I never
had to make that decision
sentenced to death.
Blacks comprise nearly 60 and Im relieved that I didnt
percent of those sentenced have to.
to death in Pennsylvania
since 1980. And more than Should be no questions
90 percent of those accused
Ludgate has felt like crying

Unevenly administered
None of the judges the
Reading Eagle spoke to
would publicly say whether
they support or oppose the
death penalty. But at least
two, who have presided over
death penalty cases in Berks
and asked not to be identied,
said they no longer support
capital punishment.
Their reasons echo ideas
a task force is studying and
that were cited by Gov. Tom
Wolf when he issued his
moratorium on executions
this year.
Its not evenly administered, said Livingstone

READING EAGLE: SUSAN L. ANGSTADT

Its not evenly administered. If youre black or

youre poor whether youre black or white
the likelihood is youre going to get some
swift justice and be sentenced to death.
Livingstone Johnson, a retired Allegheny County judge

underneath her black robe

more than once.
Time and again in her
courtroom, and more often
than not, Ludgate witnessed
victims families forgive their
loved ones killer. Some, she
said, forgave more eloquently
than others. Others forgave
through clenched teeth out
of a sense of duty that their
faith demands.
The amount of forgiveness
Ive seen from victims was
overwhelming sometimes,
Ludgate said. I would sit
there and think, I dont know
if I could do that.
She said she believes Pennsylvanias death penalty system is crippling for counties
with its steep financial and
emotional costs, magnified
because the commonwealth
has not executed anyone in
16 years.
Part of me wonders why
the Legislature keeps it on
the books because its such
an expensive proposition,
Ludgate said.
But Ludgate added that she
does not believe the Legislature could muster the votes
to abolish capital punishment.
Given growing concerns
about the death penalty
about its arbitrariness and
fairness and the governors
moratorium, Ludgate said a
pause is appropriate.
If youre going to take
somebodys life there should
be no questions, she said.
I think we should be certain that our system is as
good as it can be. This is
peoples lives on the line.
People are entitled to their
day in court no matter who
they are.
Contact Nicole C. Brambila: 610-3715044 or nbrambila@readingeagle.com.

Berks Countys history of executions

Since 1746, Berks County has
executed 26 people, three
of whom were women. Eighteen of these executions
were conducted by hanging.
All eight of the countys electrocution executions were for
murder, but a little more than
a fourth of the hangings were
for attempted robbery or burglary. And one execution included a black man who was
hanged in 1792 for angering
a white man. All three women executed were hanged for
killing an infant or child.

Sept. 7, 1746: Thomas Fowler hanged for house burglary.

March 10, 1759: Elizabeth
Graul hanged for killing an
infant.
Dec. 19, 1767: Catharine
Krebs hanged for killing an
infant.
July 7, 1770: Thomas Proctor hung for burglary.
Unknown date during Revolutionary War: A British soldier named Krouch (no rst
name given) was hung for
attempted robbery in Exeter
Township.

1784: A man named Walsh

(no rst name given) hanged
for stealing $9 from a crippled woman.
1792: Samuel Peeves, a
black man, hanged for outraging a white man.

April 1, 1842: Nicholas Reinhart hanged for murdering a

neighbor.
May 13, 1870: Zachary E.
Snyder hanged for murdering
a companion.

Nov. 11, 1797: Benjamin Bailey hanged for murdering a

peddler.

June 29, 1893: Pietro Buccieri hanged for stabbing a

nun to death in St. Josephs
Hospital.

June 10, 1809: Susanna

Cox, an unmarried woman,
hanged for killing her child.

Sept. 23, 1902: George

Gantz hanged for assaulting
and killing a 15-year-old girl.

Jan. 30, 1813: John Schildt

hanged for killing his elderly
parents.

Oct. 29, 1908: Salvatore Gorrito hanged for killing State

Trooper Timothy K. Kelleher.

Feb. 25, 1909: Frank Palmer

for killing a married woman.
Feb. 27, 1912: Matthew E.
Vanaman for killing his wife.
July 9, 1914: Frank P. Schnabel hanged for killing his
wife.
1922: Chong Toa for killing a
man in his laundry. Toa was
the rst from Berks to be
electrocuted.
April 6, 1925: Grant Adams
electrocuted for killing Reading Police Officer Henry L.
Stoudt.

Oct. 19, 1925: Anthony

Wickrowski electrocuted for
killing his wife.
Jan. 25, 1926: Robert Brue,
Leamon Crocker and Irvan
Grinage electrocuted for the
murder of a store owner.
May 10, 1937: Edward
Shawell and Marcus England
electrocuted for the murder
of a man during a gasoline
station holdup.
Source: Reading Eagle archives