Robert Golub accepts responsibility for Kelly Ann Tinyes' death, documents show

Convicted murderer Robert Golub has admitted killing his former 13-year-old Valley Stream neighbor, Kelly Ann Tinyes, for the first time since her 1989 slaying in an account that has only angered her family.

Transcripts from Golub's November parole board hearing showed Tuesday that Golub -- after years of denying he killed Kelly -- accepted responsibility for her death during his failed bid for release.

Golub, 46, who is serving a sentence of 25 years to life, apologized and claimed he never intended to cause Kelly's death. He described the rage he went into while killing Tinyes, saying he was using a "ridiculous" amount of anabolic steroids at the time.

Authorities found Kelly's body in a sleeping bag in a closet in the Golub home a day after she was last seen leaving her Horton Road home and going into his family's nearby residence. Prosecutors said the teen had been strangled and sexually mutilated.

Golub's version is that he came out of his room in his family's home and ran into Kelly on the stairs, knocking her down before he even saw her, according to the transcript.

He said Kelly fell down the whole flight and became unconscious, which panicked him. But instead of calling for help, Golub said he became infuriated. "It felt like she was imposing on me," he said. "All of a sudden, this happened to me, I became angry."

Golub told the parole board that he dragged the girl's body through the house. "I took her by the ankle and pulled her through the house, and her jacket, and her shirt, and everything rode up; when I read she had suffocated, I believe that's what happened," he said.

Golub also said he slapped Kelly's face to try and awaken her before his violence escalated.

"The slaps became punches; the punches, kicks. I acted horrendously that day," said Golub, who also claimed he never sexually assaulted the victim.

Golub said he brought Kelly's body to the home's basement, and then into a closet.

The victim's father, Richard Tinyes, said Golub's admission brings the family no comfort. "Now he's trying to say he's sorry 25 years later? It's out of control," Tinyes said.

"It doesn't bring us any justice, him saying this finally," he added. "All he's trying to do is . . . get himself out of jail, and for what he did, he should stay there and die."

Some framed photos of a smiling Kelly were intermingled with holiday decorations in the Tinyes' living room near a Christmas tree. They'll place another by her grave soon.

The family said Golub's account only reignited their pain.

"It's bringing me back to the first day it happened, and it's really hard," Vicki Tinyes, the victim's mother, said through tears.

Golub told the parole board he "assumed" Kelly was at the house to visit his younger brother but that he wasn't sure.

He said, as far as he knew, his brother and his brother's two friends were also in the house when Kelly tumbled down the stairs and he dragged her around the house. But he said there was a stereo playing upstairs, and they didn't hear what happened from the second floor.

There was no mention in the transcript about a phone call prosecutors said the victim got from someone in the Golub home before she went there.

The murder sparked a feud between the Golub and the Tinyes families that kept up until the Golubs moved in 2009. That same year, Golub said in a Newsday interview at Green Haven Prison in upstate Stormville that he had nothing to do with Tinyes' murder.

But Golub told the parole board he was "very, very sorry" and would live every day in his victim's memory if released from prison.

He hasn't responded to a Nov. 25 letter that Newsday mailed to the prison that asked him about his admission of guilt and parole denial.

"These remarks by Robert Golub do nothing but reopen wounds and cause pain where healing should happen instead," Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement. A spokesman said the investigation remains open.

Excerpts from Robert Golub's parole hearing on Nov. 20

Asked by the parole board why he would suffocate a 13-year-old neighbor: "The suffocation, I believe, it wasn't intentional. It was through my negligent actions that day. I guess her clothes rode up to her body and suffocated her."

Asked what happened that day: "I had come out of my room and I was running down the stairs. and I ran into Kelly on the stairs. She fell down the stairs. She became unconscious. I panicked. I didn't call for assistance."

Asked by the parole board to say what happened: "Instead of calling somebody for help, I took her by the ankle and pulled her through the house, and her jacket, and her shirt, and everything rode up; when I read she had suffocated, I believe that's what happened. She was unconscious from the time she hit the bottom of the stairs. She never regained consciousness, at all."