Ernest Wholaver

Background

In July 2002, Ernest R. Wholaver, Jr. was charged with multiple sexual offenses for alleged conduct involving his two daughters, Victoria and Elizabeth, with Elizabeth still a minor at the time the charges were lodged. Wholaver’s wife, Jean Wholaver, obtained an order under the Protection From Abuse Act. The order included provisos that Wholaver was evicted from the family’s Middletown residence, with no right or privilege of entry, and was prohibited from possessing or acquiring firearms.

After the order, Wholaver took up residence with his mother, father, and younger brother, Scott Wholaver, in Cambria County.

The offence

Just after midnight on December 24, 2002, Wholaver set out for the Middletown residence with Scott Wholaver. Scott waited in the vehicle about a block away while Wholaver approached the house. Wholaver cut telephone and other wires leading to the residence, forcibly gained entry, and shot Jean, Victoria, and Elizabeth to death with a pistol.

After the killings, Victoria’s nine-month-old girl, Madison, was left alive but alone and unattended.

Wholaver and Scott then drove to Clearfield County. Wholaver discarded the pistol, a shotgun, and other potentially incriminating items at a remote location.

The bodies were discovered on Christmas Day 2002, after the victims failed to show up for Christmas Eve dinner at the home of Jean’s mother in Johnstown. Each victim suffered a single gunshot wound to the head from a .22-caliber weapon. Madison was found crying but unhurt next to Jean’s body.

Investigation

Following the discovery of the bodies and Madison approximately twenty-eight hours after the killings, police obtained search warrants for the Middletown residence to gather evidence. Police later executed warrants to search Wholaver’s person, his vehicle, and the Cambria County home where he was living.

Scott Wholaver had first told police that he and his brother were looking for deer in Cambria County at the time the homicides occurred, but later told police he drove his brother halfway across the state to the Middletown home of his wife and daughters. According to grand jury presentment information, Scott said they were drinking early on December 24 at a Cambria County bar when his brother said he wanted to go to his former home to get his dog. The presentment stated Scott parked a block away from the home around 4 a.m. on Dec. 24 and watched his brother walk toward it, returning 10 minutes later “in an agitated state” and telling his brother to drive away.

The presentment stated that an uncle of the brothers said they did not come home on the night of the killings, and that a .22-caliber revolver was seized during a search of the home of Ernest Wholaver Sr. in Cambria County, where Ernest Wholaver Jr. was living since the sexual assault charges were filed against him. Ballistics tests had not determined whether the .22-caliber revolver seized in the search was the murder weapon.

According to the presentment, police found a broken garage window at the Wholaver home, through which the garage door could be opened and an intruder could get inside the house.

Police later retrieved firearms and other evidence from the Clearfield County location where Scott led them.

Arrest and charges

Wholaver was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder. The Commonwealth furnished notice that it intended to pursue imposition of the death penalty.

Dauphin County district attorney’s office also charged Wholaver with burglary, reckless endangerment, and related counts. The reckless endangerment charge related to Madison.

Wholaver had been free on $100,000 bail pending trial on charges that he sexually molested his daughters. His bail was revoked and he was arrested January 2 because authorities were concerned that he would attempt to flee before the upcoming sexual assault trial.

On January 3, Scott Wholaver was charged with three counts of homicide as an accomplice and was held without bail in the Dauphin County Prison.

Trial

Prior to trial, Scott Wholaver pled guilty to third-degree murder and agreed to cooperate as a Commonwealth witness. He led police to the Clearfield County location, from where firearms and other evidence were retrieved.

Also before trial, the prior sexual offense charges were consolidated with the murder cases. Wholaver secured a change of venire due to pre-trial publicity.

At trial, the Commonwealth presented Scott Wholaver as a central witness. Scott testified that, following Jean Wholaver’s decision to seek a divorce, Wholaver stated that he would shoot her. Scott described the brothers’ nocturnal trip to the Middletown residence on December 24 and indicated that Wholaver claimed that he wished only to retrieve his dog. The trip involved furtive activities and was corroborated by a surveillance video obtained by police from a convenience store located mid-way between Cambria County and Middletown.

Scott testified that upon arrival in Middletown, he was told to stop the vehicle to permit Wholaver to access the rear seat. Wholaver then directed him to proceed to a location about a block from the Wholaver residence. Scott parked the vehicle there and waited while Wholaver proceeded toward the residence. Wholaver returned five to ten minutes later appearing shaken. Wholaver instructed him to drive to the remote Clearfield County location, where Scott saw the shotgun in the rear of the vehicle and watched Wholaver shuttle from the vehicle to the woods. Wholaver told him to repeat a false story if asked about his whereabouts during the time period spanning these activities.

The Commonwealth also offered testimony from several prisoner-witnesses describing incriminatory statements by Wholaver. Those witnesses described Wholaver’s jail-based efforts to hire a West Virginia man to kill the father of Victoria’s child, Francisco Ramos, and to fabricate evidence suggesting that Mr. Ramos had killed Jean, Victoria, and Elizabeth Wholaver. A prisoner-witness involved police at an early stage in these efforts, and undercover officers documented Wholaver’s subsequent solicitation attempts.

Defense counsel acknowledged this conduct in closing argument. Wholaver’s trial counsel suggested that the attempt reflected only an effort by a distraught husband and father to avenge the killing of his family against the man that he believed was the perpetrator.

The defense theory recognized that Mr. Ramos was not the killer but asserted that another man, who had also been intimately associated with Victoria, had perpetrated the murders.

Ballistics evidence was presented to connect the pistol found in Clearfield County to the killings, but the association could not be made firmly because both the firearm and bullets were degraded.

The Commonwealth also presented evidence that the pistol was registered to Wholaver’s uncle.

The Commonwealth introduced the preliminary hearing testimony of Elizabeth and Victoria Wholaver from the sexual assault case under the forfeiture-by-wrongdoing exception to the hearsay rule, on the theory that they were killed to prevent their testimony.

Wholaver was convicted of first-degree murder pertaining to each of the killings. He was also convicted of the separate crimes of killing prosecution witnesses, conspiracy, reckless endangerment (of Madison), burglary, and criminal solicitation related to his attempt to have Mr. Ramos killed.

Wholaver was acquitted of the sexual offenses.

Sentencing

In the penalty phase, the Commonwealth pursued aggravators including in-perpetration-of-a-felony, grave-risk, multiple-murders, and protection-from-abuse-violation. The Commonwealth incorporated evidence adduced in the guilt phase.

Wholaver pursued the no-significant-history-of-prior-criminal-convictions and catch-all mitigators. The jury found all of the aggravators. At least some of the jurors accepted Wholaver’s proffered mitigators. The jurors unanimously returned three death sentences based on individual weighing determinations.

Wholaver was sentenced to death on August 31, 2004.

Appeals

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed Wholaver’s sentence on August 22 (year not stated in the provided material). His petition to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review was denied on Jan. 16 (year not stated in the provided material).

Outcome

Wholaver was scheduled for execution by lethal injection on June 20 after Gov. Ed Rendell signed a warrant. The execution was described as set for June 20.

Wholaver was an inmate at SCI-Greene.

Timeline

• July 2002 — Ernest R. Wholaver, Jr. was charged with multiple sexual offenses involving Victoria and Elizabeth; Elizabeth was a minor.
• July 2002 — Jean Wholaver obtained a Protection From Abuse Act order evicting Wholaver from the Middletown residence and prohibiting him from possessing or acquiring firearms.
• December 24, 2002 — Wholaver shot Jean, Victoria, and Elizabeth to death at the Middletown residence; Madison survived.
• December 24, 2002 — Wholaver and Scott drove to Clearfield County and discarded the pistol, a shotgun, and other potentially incriminating items at a remote location.
• Christmas Day 2002 — The bodies were found; Madison was discovered approximately twenty-eight hours after the killings.
• January 2 — Wholaver’s bail was revoked and he was arrested.
• January 3 — Scott Wholaver was charged with three counts of homicide as an accomplice.
• August 31, 2004 — Wholaver was sentenced to death.
• August 22 — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed Wholaver’s sentence.
• Jan. 16 — Wholaver’s petition to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied.
• June 20 — Execution was scheduled by lethal injection after Gov. Ed Rendell signed a warrant.

Other details

Ernest R. Wholaver Jr. was described as 42 at charging in January 2003 and as 47 at sentencing scheduling coverage. He was described as a former owner of a Cambria County trucking company.

The victims were identified with ages in January 2003 coverage: Jean Wholaver, 43; Victoria Wholaver, 20; and Elizabeth Wholaver, 15.

At charging in January 2003, Dauphin County District Attorney Edward M. Marsico Jr. said he would not decide whether to pursue the death penalty until Wholaver’s arraignment, but that various circumstances existed under which the death penalty could be pursued, including the killing of a witness in a court case. Marsico also said:

"Killing three people in an attempt to subvert the criminal justice system is a horrendous act and one that calls for severe punishment"

Wholaver’s attorney, Spero T. Lappas, said:

"Up until now, the investigation of this case has taken place in secret, with sealed warrants, secret testimony and behind closed doors,"
"The filing of these charges entitles Mr. Wholaver to a speedy public trial, and we anxiously await the opportunity to defend this case in open court."

Scott Wholaver indicated he parked a block away from the home around 4 a.m. on Dec. The grand jury presentment also stated that Scott indicated that on a prior occasion, Ernest Wholaver had indicated that he would kill Jean Wholaver, Victoria Wholaver and Elizabeth Wholaver.

The Tribune-Democrat coverage stated the murders took place at his wife’s home in Middletown, outside Harrisburg, and that the bodies were found on Christmas Day 2002.

The Tribune-Democrat coverage stated that police said Wholaver killed his family in retaliation after child molestation charges were filed against him.