Convicted cop killer Ronell Wilson is not mentally impaired — and because of that, a new jury will decide whether he is put to death or gets life behind bars, a Brooklyn federal judge ruled yesterday.
Judge Nicholas Garaufis rejected claims by Wilson’s lawyers that his IQ was so low that it would be unconstitutional to execute him for the 2003 cold-blooded murders of NYPD Detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin on Staten Island.
“The court holds that Wilson is not mentally retarded and was not mentally retarded at the time of the crime,” Garaufis wrote of the killer, who is expecting his first child next month after an illicit relationship with a jail guard behind bars.
The US Supreme Court has prohibited the death penalty for convicts deemed “mentally retarded.”
But Garaufis said that while seven out of eight intelligence tests that Wilson has taken over the years show a lower-than-average IQ, they do not fall below an IQ of 70, the threshold of mental impairment.
Garaufis ordered that a new jury begin considering the so-called penalty phase for Wilson on May 20 in Brooklyn federal court.
He said that “due to the extraordinary pretrial publicity on this case,” a remarkable 2,000 jurors will complete screening questionnaires over a five-day period starting April 3, and will begin to be quizzed by lawyers April 17.
Garaufis’ ruling came two days after Brooklyn federal prison guard Nancy Gonzalez, 29, was arrested for secretly having sex with Wilson, 30, while he was locked up there. She is now eight months’ pregnant.
“I applaud the judge’s decision,” said Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association.
“Recent news of Wilson fathering a child in prison tells us he is irresponsible and reckless, but more than competent to face the death penalty.”
Wilson, a gang member, shot Andrews and Nemorin in a car at point-blank range as they were working an undercover gun buy-and-bust operation.
He was convicted at a 2007 federal trial and sentenced to death by the same jury during a separate penalty phase.
But in 2010, the 2nd Circuit appeals court tossed out Wilson’s sentence.
After that ruling, Wilson’s lawyers argued to Garaufis that Wilson should not face another possible death sentence because he was mentally retarded.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona