Pittsburgh man guilty of murdering three people in Homewood

The evidence was “convincing and uncontradicted,” the judge said.

Video, blood and ballistics brought Ronald Steave to the home on Hamilton Avenue in the early morning of December 31, 2021.

And when he fled, the judge continued, there was further evidence of “escape, concealment and destruction”.

“While it was not elaborate and masterful, it was certainly comprehensive and persuasive,” said Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski.

Relying on that evidence – and without regard to the defense theory of murder-suicide – he found Steave, 32, guilty of three counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday after 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

In videos taken just 90 minutes before the shooting, Fitzgerald, Hill and Steave were seen laughing and having fun together.

“Something went terribly wrong between Mr. Steave and Nandi Fitzgerald,” he continued. “Under these circumstances, Mr. Steave executed them in the foyer of their home and, in an act of self-preservation and cowardice, went upstairs and executed 12-year-old Denzel Nowlin … and Tatiana Hill.”

According to the judge, it was “a trilogy of murders”.

The defendant was sentenced in February to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors initially said they would seek a death sentence for Steave. Last month, as the trial approached, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office withdrew that notice.

Then, as the jury trial was set to begin Nov. 1, defense attorney Frank Walker told the court that morning that his client was opting for a jury trial – at which the judge would decide the sentence.

In just a day and a half, Assistant District Attorney Alison Bragle called 26 witnesses and admitted nearly 400 pieces of evidence that, she argued, showed beyond a reasonable doubt that Steave was the killer.

Evidence included bullet casings at the crime scene that matched ammunition found in Steaves’ home and car; Video evidence showed he arrived at Fitzgerald’s home earlier in the night; and additional surveillance cameras and license plate reader cameras showed Steaves’ car leaving the crime scene that night.

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

He was not arrested for almost three months.

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

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

“It is not corroborated by evidence from any other source,” the judge said. “MS. Fitzgerald was clearly not distressed, despondent or exhibiting suicidal tendencies on the morning of her death. Instead, it was quite the opposite.”

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

Morton-Searcy described her daughter as loving and caring.

Hill, who graduated from Penn Hills High School, was scheduled to start nursing school a month after her death. She had two children, whom Morton-Searcy is now raising.

“I’m supposed to be a grandma, not a mom,” she said.

Wanda Fitzgerald, Nandi Fitzgerald’s mother, said she was pleased with the verdict. She’s glad Steave will spend the rest of his life in prison and didn’t want him to face the death penalty.

“We knew he did it,” she said. “We just had to wait a long time.”

Throughout the entire process, the Fitzgerald family wore blue and purple, representing Buddy’s favorite color, blue, and Nandi’s favorite color, purple.

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

“She would pretend to be drunk to be silly,” her mother said.

She loved to twerk, dance and cook.

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

Buddy had a passion for sports – soccer was his favorite sport.

He was smart at reading, could rap and loved his brothers.

“Two lives were cut short for no reason – senseless,” said Daria Fitzgerald, Nandi’s aunt.