Joseph McAlpin.

You just know that that councilman wanted to say “lynched” instead of “burned at the stake.”

You just know it.

Cleveland:

A judge on Tuesday imposed the death penalty on a 32-year-old man convicted of the execution-style murders of a couple during a break-in attempt at their family-owned car lot.

Joseph McAlpin will pay the law’s ultimate penalty in the 2017 shooting deaths of Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola inside Mr. Cars on East 185th Street.

Common Pleas Court Judge Brian J. Corrigan, who presided over the three-week trial, condemned McAlpin to death row after the jury on Thursday recommended the death penalty in the trial’s second phase.

McAlpin, who is believed to be the first defendant to represent himself in a death-penalty trial in Cuyahoga County’s history, thanked Corrigan and the team of county prosecutors for their patience with him during the trial. He also apologized to his own family for what he called “ignorant” declarations during trial that he would only accept full liberty or death.

McAlpin offered no words to the family of Kuznik and Tomola, who packed the courtroom’s gallery but chose not to address the court.

…

Cleveland City Councilman Michael Polensek, whose ward encompassed the Collinwood neighborhood where the car lot sat for 40 years, called McAlpin a “demonic killer” who rocked the entire neighborhood and the business community across Cleveland.

“This was never about retribution,” Polensek said. “This was about justice.”

After the hearing, Polensek told reporters that he felt death by lethal injection was “too good” for McAlpin.

“As far as I’m concerned he should be burned at the stake for what he did to that family,” Polensek said.

Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola.

Joseph McAlpin.

It’s a death penalty case, and he’s representing himself in court.

It’s tempting to laugh, but…

What color are the jury?

Cleveland:

Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola wanted to close up their used car dealership and pick up fish dinners for their two kids before they returned home on Good Friday.

Before they finished, Joseph McAlpin carried out a plan to steal cars to turn into quick cash, killing the Euclid couple along the way, a prosecutor said Tuesday during opening statements in McAlpin’s capital murder trial.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Russ Tye said that McAlpin shot the two at close range and tried to cover his tracks by stealing the dealership’s video surveillance system. He left behind DNA evidence that linked him to the April 14, 2017 slayings at Mr. Cars Inc. dealership in Collinwood that set off an uproar in the community, Tye said.

“Joseph McAlpin went into Mr. Cars and did the unimaginable,” Tye said. “He brutally murdered and viciously shot Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola.”

McAlpin, in a rarity for a death-penalty case, is representing himself in the trial in front of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Brian Corrigan. McAlpin denied committing the crime in his opening statement.

Tye said along with DNA, cellphone data and surveillance video show that McAlpin, 31, carried out the shootings of Kuznik and Tomola, who left behind three children between the ages of 6 and 19.

Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola.