Edwin Rios Romero

Background

Edwin Rios Romero was 43 years old. He was convicted alongside George Ivan Lopez for the murder of David Bolasky, an Allentown architect.

David Bolasky was an architect who lived in Macungie and was nearly 15 years in the architecture firm role described as vice president of Wallace & Watson Associates in Allentown. Bolasky was also described as a landlord. Miguel Moreno was identified as a tenant connected to Bolasky’s rent collection.

The scheme involved luring Bolasky into Miguel Moreno’s apartment to steal the rent Bolasky had collected from other tenants. George Lopez was described as sitting on the couch in the living room of Moreno’s apartment when Bolasky entered.

The offence

In January 1995, David Bolasky was killed after he went to an apartment building he owned to collect rent from a tenant, Miguel Moreno. Bolasky was robbed at the apartment.

The plot involved Moreno introducing Bolasky to his uncle, George Lopez, and then Moreno leaving while Bolasky waited. When Bolasky entered the apartment, Moreno introduced him to George Lopez, who was sitting on the couch in the living room. Moreno excused himself, saying he needed to go downstairs because he had forgotten some of the money.

While Bolasky waited for Moreno’s return, Lopez pulled out a gun and forced him to the back of the apartment where Edwin Romero and another man, Jorge Barbosa, were hiding. After failing to strangle Bolasky to death with a rope, Edwin Rios Romero switched to a towel. Romero, Barbosa and Lopez took turns tightening the towel around Bolasky’s throat until he died.

Bolasky had collected only $300 at the time Moreno found him and told him he wanted to pay two months of rent, but that the rest of the rent was in his apartment.

The killing occurred after Edwin Rios Romero strangled David Bolasky to death on Jan. 3, 1995, in Allentown.

Investigation

Three days later, on Jan. 6, 1995, police found Bolasky’s body in the woods near a secluded road. His corpse was frozen and the towel that had been used to strangle him was still tied around his neck.

Trial

In March 1996, a jury convicted Lopez and Romero of 1st-degree murder. On March 19, 1996, a jury found Romero and Lopez guilty of first-degree murder, robbery, and theft by unlawful taking. The jury returned death sentences for both men a day later.

The other 2 defendants were spared the death penalty in exchange for cooperation with prosecutors:

• George Ortiz Barbosa pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and received a life sentence.
• Moreno admitted to setting up the robbery and was sentenced to 20-40 years.

Sentencing

The jury sentenced both Edwin Rios Romero and George Ivan Lopez to death. Romero was sentenced to death on April 17, 1996.

Appeals

Two warrants were issued in Romero’s case. His execution was stayed the first time to allow the filing of a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court. The second stay was to allow post-conviction proceedings in the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas.

Post-conviction relief was denied by the lower court on Sept. 15, 2000. The state Supreme Court affirmed that decision last month, lifting the second stay.

Outcome

Edwin Rios Romero was under a death sentence. He was scheduled to die by lethal injection on March 25, with the text describing that Romero’s death warrant was the Governor’s 77th. The text also described the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania opinion J113-98, stating that in 1995 Edwin Romero and three other men murdered Allentown architect David Bolasky, and that Romero and George Ivan Lopez were given the death penalty for co-defendant Edwin Rios Romero.

Other details

Governor Rendell issued a 77th Death Warrant on Jan. 29, 2008. The plot was described as a scheme to get money for a return trip to Florida.