Grazioli

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has upheld the conviction of an Erie County financial adviser who murdered a former Altoona woman in 2018.

Amanda Elizabeth Schmitt, 31, a school teacher, and John Grazioli, now 52, had been married only a few months when during the early morning of March 8, 2018, he shot and killed her with a gun that he claimed he had purchased as a birthday gift for her.

Schmitt was in bed at the time of her death, and, according to Grazioli, he took the 9mm handgun out of the closet to show her, although her birthday was still a month away.

She allegedly acknowledged the gun and stated, “Thanks, Babe,” then attempted to go back to sleep.

The victim was then shot in the back of the head.

Grazioli prepared a note that investigators found stating that he had killed his wife.

He stated that his ex-wife would need access to the house “to get our children’s things. Everything goes to them,” he stated, according to the opinion issued recently by the Pennsylvania Superior Court. “If my kids want them, they can take the dogs. Sorry for all of this.”

The note was signed “John Grazioli.”

After the shooting, he tried to gain time, using his wife’s phone to text co-workers that she would miss work that day due to illness.

He called his ex-wife, who reported “at no point did (Grazioli) claim the killing was the result of any drug impairment or intoxication.”

He also did not claim in his call to his former wife that the killing was an accident, the court summarized.

Later that day, he went to Mass at a downtown Erie church and talked to a priest.

He was taken into custody about 4 p.m. by the Millcreek Police Department.

A Millcreek officer during the Grazioli trial testified the defendant showed no signs of impairment when questioned.

A jury found Grazioli guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another, possessing an instrument of crime and carrying a firearm without a license.

In 2020, the Superior Court affirmed Grazioli’s conviction and sentence.

The defense at that time was seeking a new trial and argued that Grazioli had ingested alcohol, cocaine, marijuana and Ativan, an anti-anxiety drug, the night before the killing.

The presiding judge during the trial refused to instruct the jury that voluntary intoxication could be a defense for the murder.

The appeals court in 2020 rejected the defense argument, with the trial judge stating, “Crucially missing from Grazioli’s trial testimony and argument on appeal is evidence of impairment to such a degree that he lost all faculty and sensibility and was completely overwhelmed or overpowered by alleged intoxicants.”

In his most recent argument for a new trial, Grazioli’s attorneys posed five questions in an effort to show that his counsel during the trial and on appeal were ineffective.

The primary question of his most recent appeal was whether his trial counsel presented incongruous defenses — that the shooting was either an accident or that he was suffering from diminished capacity.

The Superior Court panel that included Judges Judith F. Olson, Megan Sullivan and Kate Ford Elliott concluded that “raising the dual defenses was within the realm of reasonable strategy in light of the evidence presented at trial (his intoxication possibly causing an accident).”

The present defense, led by Jessica Ann Fiscus of the Erie County Public Defender’s office, raised other issues:

– That the appeals counsel failed to effectively cross-examine a commonwealth firearms expert;

– The trial court gave an erroneous instruction when charging the jury on one count of possession of an instrument of crime;

– His trial counsel did not object when during closing arguments he did not object to a misstatement by the prosecutor;

– His prior counsel erred by pursuing lines of questioning of Grazioli that “unnecessarily opened the door to cross-examination about matters (like his background) unrelated to his defense.”

The Superior Court panel summed up its position by stating, “Upon our exhaustive review of the instant claims and the record, we are unable to conclude that the (post-conviction court) erred by dismissing (Grazioli’s) assertions his trial and direct appeal counsel provided ineffective assistance.”

Amanda Elizabeth Schmitt was a graduate of Altoona Area High school in 2004.

Grazioli is serving a mandatory sentence of life with no chance of parole for his first-degree murder conviction. His place of confinement is not listed.