Posted on: Friday, April 12, 2002

Scuffle delays killer's sentencing again

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

Sentencing for a man convicted of the bludgeoning death of a cab driver in April 1999 had to be postponed yesterday after he got into a scuffle with deputy sheriffs and was cut on the head.

It was the second time in as many days that sentencing had to be continued for Keith Murauskas, found guilty in January of the kidnapping and murder of fellow cab driver Paul Salazar.

Yesterday's incident happened when Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario called a recess and Murauskas, 46, began to berate him.

Del Rosario several times had asked Murauskas, who is acting as his own lawyer, to move ahead with his legal arguments.

Murauskas then accused Del Rosario of being prejudiced against him and denying his constitutional rights to a fair trial.

City deputy prosecutor Christopher Van Mater said he was told that Murauskas "aggressively grabbed" the two deputies who were leading him to a holding area and that Murauskas was injured while being subdued.

A city ambulance was called to the Circuit Court building, where paramedics treated Murauskas.

The sentencing for Murauskas, who faces life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, resumes at 10 a.m. today.

The hearing began Wednesday, but Del Rosario ordered it continued after one of Salazar's brothers shouted profanities at Murauskas in the courtroom.

Murauskas was convicted of killing Salazar, 33, with a sledgehammer at Salazar's Magellan Avenue apartment during a botched robbery and of planning to kill Salazar's wife, Virginia, so there would be no witnesses. Virginia Salazar escaped injury when she failed to return home at her usual hour that afternoon.

Because he was found guilty of the murder of Salazar and of planning to kill Salazar's wife, Murauskas was convicted of attempted first-degree murder, a charge that involves trying to kill more than one person.