Joseph McAlpin: Mr. Cars Murders, Death Sentence, and Appeals

Joseph McAlpin is the man convicted of the Mr. Cars murders, the April 2017 robbery and double homicide at a used-car dealership in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood that left owners Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola dead. A Cuyahoga County jury found him guilty on all counts in April 2019, and he was sentenced to death the following month. He remains on Ohio’s death row.

What Happened at Mr. Cars

On the evening of Good Friday, April 14, 2017, McAlpin and his brother Jerome Diggs carried out a planned robbery at Mr. Cars, a used-car lot on East 185th Street owned by Michael Kuznik, 47, and his partner Trina Tomola, 46.¹ A third man, Andrew Keener, drove. Keener later testified that the plan was to “hit this spot for titles and car keys” so they could steal and resell vehicles.²

McAlpin shot Kuznik in the showroom. When Kuznik fled to a back room, McAlpin followed and shot him in the top of the head. Tomola was shot in the back of the head near an exit as she tried to escape.¹ The couple’s Doberman Pinscher, Axel, was also shot and killed. Investigators later swabbed the dog’s mouth, believing he may have bitten one of the attackers.³

The robbers took a 2006 Mercedes SL430, a 2008 BMW 528i, and at least $7,500 in cash from sales earlier that day. They also took the dealership’s surveillance system and the computers holding sales records, which slowed investigators trying to pin down exactly what had been stolen.³

The Victims

Kuznik and Tomola ran Mr. Cars together and lived around the corner. They had three children at home: Trina’s 19-year-old son Colin Zaczkowski, a 13-year-old daughter, and a 6-year-old son. The last confirmed contact came around 5:30 p.m., when a customer spoke with Tomola by phone. He later told investigators her voice was unusually quiet, which he found odd because she was not typically soft-spoken.²

When the couple failed to come home that night, their daughter grew worried and told Zaczkowski. He drove to the dealership around 9:00 p.m. His parents’ car was parked out front, the “blocker” vehicles they normally used to deter theft were missing, and the showroom door was propped open. Inside, he found his stepfather’s body in a pool of blood and called 911.²

How Investigators Identified McAlpin

Police recovered the stolen BMW on the city’s west side within days. The Mercedes stayed missing longer.³ Forensic evidence pointed to McAlpin. His DNA was recovered from a computer modem in the dealership’s back office near Tomola’s body, from the inside of Kuznik’s jeans pocket where he had kept cash, and from the steering wheel and driver-side door of the stolen BMW.⁴

FBI Special Agent Brian Young analyzed cellphone records showing communications between McAlpin and Keener during the crimes, and tower data placed their phones near the dealership at the relevant times. McAlpin’s Google account showed searches for firearm calibers on April 5, 2017, and a search about switching vehicle titles without the owner’s permission on April 15, the day after the murders. He also searched for news coverage of the killings in the days that followed. McAlpin was arrested on June 13, 2017, about two months after the murders.²

What Happened to the Other Two Men

Andrew Keener was originally charged with aggravated murder. In February 2019 he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and grand theft under an agreement that required him to testify against McAlpin.⁵ Keener told the jury Jerome Diggs had recruited him to help steal cars, that he served as the getaway driver, and that he initially lied to police out of fear of McAlpin and his family. He received a six-year prison sentence.²

Jerome Diggs, McAlpin’s brother, pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other charges. His case never went to trial. On February 11, 2021, all charges against him were dismissed. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley’s office said the decision was “reached given the current evidence against this co-defendant and taking into consideration the approval of this resolution by the victim’s family as they seek closure.” The state reserved the right to refile charges if additional evidence emerged.⁶⁷

Trial and Conviction

McAlpin waived his right to counsel on July 19, 2018, and represented himself through every phase of the trial, including jury selection, the guilt phase, and the penalty phase.² Standby counsel was appointed but did not control the defense. Jury selection began on March 15, 2019, before Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Brian Corrigan. The trial ran 22 days, and prosecutors called 33 witnesses.⁴

On April 16, 2019, the jury found McAlpin, then 31, guilty on all counts. Those included two counts of aggravated murder with four death-penalty specifications each (course of conduct, kidnapping, aggravated burglary, and aggravated robbery); aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, kidnapping, murder, and felonious assault; having weapons while under disability, which indicated a prior record barring him from possessing firearms; and grand theft, cruelty to animals, and injuring animals for the vehicle theft and the killing of Axel.⁸

The Death Sentence

The mitigation phase began on May 13, 2019. The jury found that the aggravating circumstances outweighed any mitigating factors beyond a reasonable doubt and recommended death on both aggravated murder counts.⁴ On May 21, 2019, Judge Corrigan imposed two death sentences and a consecutive 63-year prison term for the noncapital offenses.⁹ O’Malley said afterward that “12 citizens of this county and now a judge have determined the death sentence was the only appropriate punishment.”

Appeals

Ohio law requires an automatic appeal to the state Supreme Court in every death case. On May 12, 2022, the Supreme Court of Ohio unanimously affirmed McAlpin’s convictions and death sentence. McAlpin argued that the Sixth Amendment right to self-representation should not extend to the death-qualification voir dire or the mitigation phase, and that his standby counsel had interfered with his defense by declining to pursue a defense DNA expert’s report. The Court rejected both claims.²

Shortly after sentencing, McAlpin also filed a motion for a new trial based on what he called newly discovered evidence. He filed it six days past the 120-day deadline, after which Ohio’s Criminal Rule 33(A)(6) requires a defendant to first obtain leave by showing with clear and convincing proof that he was “unavoidably prevented” from discovering the evidence sooner. He skipped that step. On January 21, 2026, the Supreme Court of Ohio unanimously affirmed the denial of that 2019 motion, but remanded the case to the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to address separate 2020 filings and to decide whether McAlpin could meet the “unavoidably prevented” standard on that track.¹⁰

Where the Case Stands Now

McAlpin remains on Ohio’s death row. His remanded 2020 motions are pending in the Cuyahoga County trial court, and the typical Ohio capital-case pipeline still includes further state postconviction proceedings and potential federal habeas corpus review, a process that frequently takes more than two decades.¹¹

An execution is unlikely in the near term regardless of how those proceedings unfold. Ohio has not put anyone to death since July 2018, and Governor Mike DeWine has delayed every scheduled execution since taking office in January 2019, citing the state’s inability to obtain lethal-injection drugs. In June 2026, DeWine went further and publicly called on the Ohio legislature to abolish the death penalty, saying “the moral justification I had no longer exists.” Whether the legislature acts is uncertain; House Speaker Matt Huffman has said he will oppose repeal.¹² As of mid-2026, more than 100 people sit on Ohio’s death row, and according to the state attorney general’s office, more death-row inmates now die of natural causes or suicide than by execution.¹³

1
Cleveland.com. Cleveland Man Gets Death Penalty in Mr. Cars Double Murder
2
Supreme Court of Ohio. State v. McAlpin, 2022-Ohio-1567
3
Cleveland.com. Slain Dog May Be Key to Solving Car Dealership Murders
4
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office. Joseph McAlpin Sentencing Press Release
5
Cleveland.com. Accomplice Testifies He Was Initially Unaware of Mr. Cars Killings
6
Cleveland 19 News. Charges Dismissed Against Third Suspect in Murder of Cleveland Car Dealership Couple
7
Fox 8 Cleveland. Case Dismissed Against Suspect in Cleveland Car Dealership Murders
8
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office. Joseph McAlpin Verdict Press Release
9
Cleveland 19 News. Judge Sentences Joseph McAlpin After Jury Recommends Death
10
Court News Ohio. State v. McAlpin, Case No. 2024-0749
11
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Capital Crimes Annual Report 2025
12
Spectrum News 1 Ohio. Gov. DeWine Says Ohio Should Abolish Death Penalty
13
StateNews.org. Gov. DeWine Plans to Make Announcement on Death Penalty in Ohio