Anatomy of a ghastly crime [The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.]

Sept. 01--A bitter message written in blood on a wall.

Four victims who struggled with their attacker as they were knifed to death.

Steve Zernhelt was stabbed 20 times. Dennis Marsh, 15. Slumped in his wheelchair, 87-year-old Alvin Marsh Jr.'s throat was deeply cut. Denise Merhi had at least 45 wounds.

"Jesus," cried out an aunt before she burst into tears at Tuesday's preliminary hearing for Michael Eric Ballard, who pleaded not guilty to killing the four at a Northampton home in June.

Prosecutors have called Ballard, 37, a "mad dog" who deserves to be put to death. Tuesday they presented part of their homicide case, and District Judge Diane Marakovits found there's enough evidence for him to face trial.

The often-gruesome 90 minutes of testimony offered a bloody picture of the crime scene and an early look at a motive for Ballard, a paroled murderer who authorities said had been dating Merhi and at one point lived with her at her Lincoln Avenue home.

"Denise is a whore," police said they found written in blood in the basement, near her dead father and a crumpled blood-stained T-shirt with a Superman emblem that testimony tied to Ballard.

On June 26, authorities arrived at 1917 Lincoln Ave. to find neighbors wailing outside and four people dead inside from knife wounds. They were Merhi, 39; her father, Dennis Marsh, 62; her grandfather, Alvin Marsh Jr.; and Zernhelt, 53, a neighbor who rushed to the house to try to help, police said.

"Whether she is seeing a fellow, or one or more, it doesn't matter," Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said afterward of Merhi. "She's allowed to, but apparently Michael Ballard didn't see it that way."

The hearing offered a first glimpse of Ballard, who was shackled and had a shaved head and a small mustache. He showed no emotion throughout testimony that brought gasps and tears from the families who packed the prosecution side of the courtroom in the Easton courthouse.

A next-door neighbor testified that on the day of the killings, she saw a blood-soaked Ballard on the porch of the home, trying to "shake [the blood] off himself."

Emily Germani, 14, said that when Ballard noticed her, he looked surprised and went back into the house. She said she heard Zernhelt's wife, Janet, screaming that her husband had been killed. Germani recalled the day as the one in which "my neighbors were murdered."

Ballard was arrested after he was found in a wrecked car two miles away with a broken leg, knife wounds to his lower body and an empty sheath attached to his belt, police said. When state police Cpl. Mark Rowlands asked him what happened, Ballard told him, "It's obvious, I just killed everyone," Rowlands testified.

A day after the killings, Ballard told Trooper Raymond Judge he "wasn't contesting this," said Judge, the lead investigator.

"Just give me the papers. I'll sign it. I'll plead guilty," Judge recalled Ballard saying. "I shouldn't have lived through it. Make the report. Blame the parole board."

When the killings occurred, Ballard was free on parole for a 1991 Allentown murder in which he stabbed and slit the throat of a city man, then fled with the man's wallet and car to Arkansas. Ballard received a 15-to-30-year sentence after admitting to third-degree murder and other charges.

In April, he was paroled from prison, the second time he'd been released, having earlier been sent back for failing to attend anger management classes.

After Tuesday's hearing, Ballard's public defenders, Michael Corriere and James Connell, declined to comment.

More than two dozen family members turned out, passing around tissues, weeping and straining to see Ballard. They appeared stunned when Judge related the bloody writing, which he said had apparently been traced by a finger.

Near it was the Superman T-shirt, which video surveillance from places where he was earlier in the day shows Ballard wearing, Judge said. The surveillance also captured a chain around Ballard's neck that bore a ring, he said.

County Coroner Zachary Lysek said blood was spattered throughout the home.

"It was a bloody scene," Lysek said. "There was a lot of blood and clot in that house."

The wounds to the victims were primarily to their heads, necks and chests, Lysek said. He noted defensive cuts to all of them as well, and highlighted those of Zernhelt, the neighbor who tried to help.

"This individual, it appeared, fought very vigorously to defend himself and protect himself from being stabbed," Lysek said.

Rowlands was off duty and driving home when he saw Ballard swerve and wreck the car he was driving on Route 329 in Allen Township. Rowlands testified he found a shirtless Ballard unconscious, with bloody jeans.

Rowlands said he was unaware of the deaths and didn't know what Ballard meant when he said he'd killed everyone. The corporal said he only learned what had happened when an emergency medical technician responded to the crash and told him.

Investigators later found the car was owned by Merhi. Two knives were recovered with blood and hair on them.

Ballard is being held without bail, primarily in the maximum-security state prison in Frackville, Schuylkill County.

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