Man convicted in deaths of parents on South Street

A Common Pleas Court judge has convicted a 34-year-old man in the 1997 murders of his parents, who were killed inside their heavily secured South Street townhouse where they sold jewelry.

Matthew Zimmerman was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder in a nonjury trial before Judge Shelley Robins New. Richard Zimmerman, 54, and his wife, Patricia, 43, were shot in the head inside their home by someone who left expensive jewelry behind in plain view.

Police found their bodies on Feb. 4, 1997. There was no sign of a break-in. Prosecutors said the couple would not have opened the door to a stranger because a 1994 robbery, in which Richard Zimmerman was shot in the leg and she was abducted, had made them vigilant about security.

Police stymied by the case arrested Zimmerman in 2002 based on a tip from a drug dealer. Prosecutors said Matthew Zimmerman loathed his parents and hoped to inherit some of their assets. His sister, Michelle Zimmerman, testified that her brother received only $65,000 in the inheritance. - AP