THE KILLER: He still says he's innocent

For 20 years, Robert Golub said he has felt sympathy

for the family of Kelly Ann Tinyes - the girl he was convicted of killing -

even though he still insists he had nothing to do with it.

"She's tragedy number one," Golub, now 41, said in Green Haven Prison in

Stormville. "I'm tragedy number two." He speculated on what his life might have

been like on the outside, perhaps as a business owner or the head of a family.

Wearing silver-rimmed glasses, his hair thinning, Golub yesterday spoke of

his estrangement from his younger brother John, his willingness to face Kelly

Ann's father and his hope that new evidence might exonerate him someday. He is

serving a sentence of 25 years to life.

Kelly Ann's brutal murder on March 3, 1989, provoked an explosion of anger

in the Valley Stream community where both families lived - and still live. A

feud between the Tinyeses and the Golubs crested during a contentious trial and

continued long after the guilty verdict, leading to harassment charges on both

sides.

Golub said he never could have reached out to the Tinyes family while he

was a suspect or later on trial. "What was I going to do, walk down the street

and ring [their] bell?" he said.

Now, however, he said is willing to talk to them and express his sorrow.

"If he wanted to, I'd talk to the gentleman," he said, referring to Richard

Tinyes, Kelly Ann's father.

The killing apparently strained relations between brothers, too, as Robert

and John J. Golub stopped speaking because of differences over the case that he

wouldn't discuss. The Tinyes family believes John Golub played a role in the

killing.

With his appeals exhausted and four years remaining until his first parole

hearing, Robert Golub now seems resigned to confinement.

Golub also said he regrets the toll his imprisonment has taken on his

parents. "I don't want to have them come here and be reminded ... that their

son's incarcerated," he said.

As long as he's there, he said has tried to better himself in prison. He

worked as a paralegal assistant in the law library at Southport for about five

years, a state Department of Correctional Services spokeswoman said. And he

practices his Catholic faith in a prison church, where he will serve as a

leader on a retreat, he said.