A 36-year-old man who served prison time for a 1992 murder was charged Sunday with fatally stabbing four people, including a woman described by confidantes as the suspect's former girlfriend.
Police charged Michael Eric Ballard with four counts of homicide for Saturday's rampage in Northampton.
Ballard killed 39-year-old Denise Merhi, her father and her grandfather along with a neighbor who rushed over to help when he heard the initial screams from Merhi's house, authorities said Sunday.
Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said he will seek the death penalty.
"It was a very difficult crime scene to see these individuals essentially slaughtered by this fellow using a knife," Morganelli said.
The quadruple murder brings up questions about why people who are convicted of murder are allowed to get out on parole. Ballard served only 15 years of a 15 to 30-year sentence, in which he pleaded guilty to stabbing an Allentown man to death in 1991.
"There is absolutely no reason why we ought to have people who've been convicted of murder out on parole at all," Morganelli told NBC Philadelphia. "They ought to be serving their entire sentence incarcerated."
Confidantes say that Merhi and Ballard dated briefly about two years ago. Ballard told police he "murdered (his) girlfriend and her family and then the neighbor," according to court documents.
Police named the other victims as Merhi's father, 62-year-old Dennis Marsh, her grandfather, 87-year-old Alvin Marsh Jr., and her neighbor, 53-year-old Steven Zernhelt.
"So had he served his entire sentence we might have 4 people alive today," "Innocent people have been slaughtered here by a man who should have been in jail."said.
Zernhelt was described by neighbors as the guy who was always willing to help.
"That guy would come to your rescue or help you out with something, he was that type of guy," Nick Politti said.
Merhi had two children, but neither was home at the time of the attack about 70 miles north of Philadelphia.
Ballard fled the scene in a car, but state troopers caught up to him when he crashed on a nearby road. He had stab wounds and blood on his legs.
Ballard was arraigned at his hospital bedside. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Ballard pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in 1992 and was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison, according to court records in Lehigh County. According to the state board of probation and parole, Ballard was released in 2006 and ordered to undergo anger management therapy.
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Ballard was sent back to prison in 2008 for failing to do the anger management therapy, but released again on parole this past April.
"Innocent people have been slaughtered here by a man who should have been in jail," said Morganelli.
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