Bucks Man Gets Death Sentence in Murder of Woman and 4-Year-Old Girl
by Jim Melwert
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- A Bucks County jury today sentenced a Levittown, Pa. man to the death penalty in connection with the murder of a pregnant woman and the woman's four-year-old daughter in 2013.
It took the jury just under eight hours of deliberations to reach their decision in the sentencing portion of this trial.
Marcel Johnson, 22, was sentenced to death for the murder of four-year-old R'Mani Rankins and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her pregnant mother, Ebony Talley.
Johnson was convicted of first-degree murder for each of those murders.
The jury determined that Johnson deserved the death penalty for killing the four-year-old, both because of the girl's age and because she was a witness to a murder (her mother).
Prosecutor Matt Weintraub credits the jury for sitting through a tough trial, and making what he calls the right decision.
"He killed a whole family in there, and it's a tragedy and it's one we can never recover from," Weintraub said. "Unfortunately, we have to move to and we have the ability to move on. But the Rankins and Talleys, they never can from this point. They can only hope to heal."
Talley was five months' pregnant when she was stabbed to death. A forensic pathologist testified during the penalty phase that one of the stab wounds was directed down into her pregnant belly. For the third-degree count of murder for the unborn child, arson for lighting their bodies on fire, and possession of an instrument of crime, Johnson was sentenced to an additional 32½ to 65 years.
"Very disappointed, felt there was a lot of mitigation," said defense attorney John Fioravanti. "It was a very difficult and emotional case because of the age of the child."
In sentencing Johnson, Judge Diane Gibbons said to him, "You took generations from that family."
