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Updated
June 8, 2006
Jo-el Scott found guilty of first-degree murder
Ex-boxer convicted on two counts in killing of Dorothy Royal, 59, on June 11 in Lincoln Park
From the Hearst-owned Times Union
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
Last updated: 4:43 p.m., Thursday, January 13, 2005ALBANY -- Jo-el Scott showed as little expression when he was pronounced guilty of two counts of first-degree murder today as he has during his entire trial.
After deliberating for just three hours, an Albany County jury convicted Scott in the brutal killing of 59-year-old Dorothy Royal on June 11 in Lincoln Park.
Relatives cheered and embraced when the verdict was read.
"Justice has been served today,'' cried Royal's daughter, Martha, as tears of joy poured from her eyes. "I just want to say thank you, Jesus. Oh, God. Thank you.''
Royal then raised her arms to the ceiling and called to her dead mother: "We got him Shu-girl. We got him.''
Jurors began deliberations around 1 p.m. after an hour lecture on the law from presiding Judge Thomas A. Breslin.
Scott, 33, will be sentenced March 10 and faces life in prison. His attorney Peter Lynch said he will appeal the verdict. Scott also faced second-degree murder and a variety of sexual assault counts in the case, but the first-degree conviction superceded the need for conviction on the other counts.
Scott had claimed, in a story that continually changed, that he was only running to Royal's aid on June 11 as two other men were beating her in Lincoln Park.
Scott, who admitted to being drunk and high on cocaine and marijuana, said he had Royal's blood on his clothes because he fell down repeatedly as he "tousled'' with the two men.
And he denied being found by police with his pants around his ankles as he lifted himself off the dead woman.
"DNA is based on the law of probability,'' defense lawyer Lynch said. "And the real perpetrator of this vicious crime is still out there. It's not Jo-el.''
The real killer left his mark in blood on the rubber glove Royal was wearing to collect bottles and cans that morning, he said, raising a photo of the ripped glove: "It doesn't get any plainer than that. It's no more. And no less.''
When it was his turn, prosecutor David Rossi dissected Scott's story, that he acknowledged had changed as many times as he talked with police and then testified.
"Sometimes things are exactly as they appear to be,'' he said. "And folks, that's what we have here.''
Scott is a 6-foot-3-inch man with the power to knock out a 250-pound man with one punch, he said: "He's a boxer. He may as well have been hitting her with anvils.''
DNA experts said it was a one in 900 billion chance more likely that the pubic hair they found on Royal's glove came from Scott, rather than from someone else. And a one in 300 billion chance it was someone other than Royal's blood found mixed with semen inside Scott's underwear, Rossi said: "... And one of those people must have been his long-lost twin brother, because that's the only other way to explain it.''
Jo-el Scott deliberately killed Royal because she was the only witness to the crime, Rossi said: "He could have just held her down and raped her. But he did it because he's Jo-el Scott. And everyone in the South End knows him. He squeezed the life out of her with one hand while he beat it out of her with the other.''
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