MAN CONVICTED OF KILLING PA. FAMILY

NEW CASTLE, Pa. (AP) -- A onetime crack cocaine addict was found guilty
Wednesday of killing a mother, her two daughters and a cousin in a rage
over his craving for drugs.

Thomas Kimbell Jr., 36, could get the death penalty at his sentencing
hearing this week.

Kimbell turned to his family and said, ``I told you,'' after the verdict
was read. Kimbell briefly put his head down on the defense table and wept.

Prosecutors said Kimbell was coming down from a crack cocaine high and
looking for drugs or money when he was spotted near Bonnie Dryfuse's mobile
home outside Pittsburgh the day of the June 1994 killings.

``There was rage here, and it wasn't rational rage,'' prosecutor Anthony
Krastek told jurors in closing arguments. ``We've got somebody who was here
in an absolute rage, desperately needing crack cocaine.''

Mrs. Dryfuse, 34, grabbed a chair and swung at the killer but hit the low
ceiling in the kitchen, Krastek said. She was stabbed to death as were the
girls, ages 4, 5, and 7, found hiding in the bathroom.

Under questioning, prosecutors said Kimbell told detectives he heard on a
police scanner that the girls' bodies had been stacked in the bathroom.
Police said that information had never been made public.

Kimbell also made suspicious comments to friends the day after the
killings, police said.

The defense said no physical evidence conntected Kimbell to the crime.

``It's a puzzle that the state police have put together and, it would
appear, to make the pieces fit together, they have shaved some of the
edges,'' lawyer Thomas Leslie said.

Checked-by: Richard Lake