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Davel Chinn Ohio Death Row

Davel Chinn was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a robbery murder. According to court documents Davel Chinn and an accomplice would rob two men of their possessions before Chinn shot one of the men dead. Davel Chinn would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Davel Chinn 2022 Information

Number A214241

DOB 05/30/1957

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 09/14/1989

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Davel Chinn More News

Davel V. Chinn lost a bid this week to overturn his conviction and death sentence in the 1989 fatal shooting of Brian Jones.

Chinn, now 43, is one of three men from Montgomery County on Ohio’s death row.

Chinn claimed through new attorneys that his court-appointed lawyers at trial failed to detect that his chief accuser, a 15-year-old co-defendant, was moderately retarded. Chinn said they could have undermined the youth’s testimony through experts in mental retardation.

Judge Barbara P. Gorman of Montgomery County Common Pleas Court rejected the claim in a ruling made public Friday.

Experts “would have contributed little, if anything, to the jury’s deliberations and certainly would have made no difference to the outcome of this case,” Gorman said in a 22-page opinion.

Gorman said Chinn’s Ohio public defenders filed other objections too late. State defenders received juvenile court records in 1993 that showed the 15-year-old witness, Marvin Washington, had an intellect in the bottom 1 percent stemming from a birth deformity. But the defenders did not raise the issue until 1997, Gorman said.

At a Feb. 10 hearing before Gorman, a state juvenile detention worker testified that after Chinn’s 1989 trial, Washington quickly improved his elementary reading skills, earned a high school certificate and graduated at the top of his class of special students.

Washington’s testimony – that he and Chinn captured Brian K. Jones, 21, in his car off South Ludlow Street – sealed Chinn’s conviction. It happened the evening of Jan. 30, 1989, and Washington, then 15, testified that he drove Chinn and Jones to Jefferson Twp., where Chinn fatally shot Jones.

Four years later, Washington and his girlfriend, Wendy Cotrill, were executed in a Dayton gravel yard – two of the six victims in the 1992 Christmas killings rampage. Marvallous Matthew Keene is on death row for five of the slayings.

https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/judge-rejects-bid-overturn-man-death-sentence/7XeYY7K1AK6zanEiS0pSaP/

David Chinn Case Update

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued her first official opinion on Monday, writing that the high court should have reviewed the case of an Ohio death row inmate challenging his execution.

In the two-page dissent, Justice Jackson noted that Davel Chinn’s petition to have his capital case reviewed should have been granted because the state did not turn over potentially innocence-proving evidence to his lawyers at trial. Under current Supreme Court precedent, prosecutors must disclose material evidence to defense lawyers ahead of trial so as not to run afoul of a defendant’s constitutional rights.

Justice Jackson was joined in her dissent by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. It would have taken four justices to vote in favor of hearing Chinn’s case for his appeal to be granted

Specifically, the prosecutors were accused in Chinn’s case of not revealing that the state’s key witness had an intellectual disability that would have affected his memory — or as Justice Jackson put it, his ability to “perceive fact from fiction, and testify accurately.”

“Because Chinn’s life is on the line, and given the substantial likelihood that the suppressed records would have changed the outcome at trial based on the Ohio courts’ own representations … I would summarily reverse to ensure that the Sixth Circuit conducts its materiality analysis under the proper standard,” Justice Jackson wrote.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/nov/7/justice-ketanji-brown-jackson-defends-death-row-in/

Steven Cepec Ohio Death Row

Steven Cepec was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a brutal murder. According to court documents Steven Cepec wa just released from prison when he beat to death 73 year old Frank Munz with a hammer before robbing the victim. Steven Cepec would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Steven Cepec 2021 Information

Number A679701

DOB 12/24/1968

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 04/25/2013

Institution Ohio State Penitentiary

Status INCARCERATED

Steven Cepec More News

The man sentenced to death for killing a Chatham Township man had his conviction upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court in a Dec. 13 ruling.

Steven Cepec was convicted in 2013 of of aggravated murder for killing Frank Munz inside the 73-year-old man’s residence in June 2010 and several other charges, including aggravated robbery.

As this is capital case, Cepec’s case was automatically appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court. In the ruling, the justices said in the majority decision.

In the appeal, Cepec’s attorney raised seven points, including challenging the admissibility of statements he made to police while in custody while being questioned at the Medina County Sheriff’s Office. In another argument, it argued Cepec’s trial attorney prejudiced the jury during selection for mentioning an Aryan Brotherhood tattoo during proceedings and for inefficient questioning of witnesses during trial. A third argument stated Common Pleas Judge Kimbler was biased during the penalty stage of the trial, the portion where the jury determines whether Cepec should get the death penalty or life in prison.

However, the justices refuted each argument, stating in many cases these objections were not raised during trial and that they did not see attorneys, prosecutors or Kimbler do anything illegal.

“After weighing the facts and evidence as set forth below, we conclude that the evidence supports the jury’s finding of guilt on the aggravating circumstances, that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating factors beyond a reasonable doubt, and that Cepec’s death sentence is appropriate and proportional,” the decision said.

A few days before Munz’s death, Cepec had checked himself out of a halfway house and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was on parole at the time. After entering Munz’s residence with the intention of robbing him, Cepec beat in Munz’s skull with a hammer and strangled him with a lampcord, with both ruled by the coroner as causes of death.

Cepec was arrested a short time later near the property by sheriff’s deputies. Munz’s nephew, hidden inside the residence at the time, called police.

Before this, Cepec had spent much of his adult life in prison on charges of burglary and other counts.

The ruling was 6-1 in favor of upholding the conviction and the sentence, with Justice William O’Neill dissenting in part; he has previously stated his opposition to the death penalty.

An execution date is set for 2021.

https://www.thepostnewspapers.com/medina/local_news/supreme-court-upholds-cepec-death-sentence/article_39dc7410-1629-5698-ba16-90317517bcd4.html

August Cassano Ohio Death Row

August Cassano was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a prison murder. According to court documents August Cassano who was serving a life sentence for murder would stab a fellow inmate, Walter Hardy, over seventy times causing his death. August Cassano was convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

August Cassano 2021 Information

Number A145242

DOB 01/23/1954

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 05/26/1976

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

August Cassano More News

Cassano was serving time at MANCI because he had been convicted of aggravated murder in Summit County on May 25, 1976.
{¶ 3} On January 31, 1992, five years before he killed Hardy, Cassano stabbed inmate Troy Angelo inside Angelo’s locked prison cell. Cassano had tied a shank to his hand with a shoestring and had stabbed Angelo approximately thirty-two times in the face, neck, chest, back, arms, head, and hand. Angelo escaped when a correctional officer opened the cell door. As Cassano was being led away, he looked at Angelo and said, “I hope you die.” On November 6, 1992, Cassano was convicted of felonious assault for stabbing Angelo.
{¶ 4} Inmate Gerald Duggan testified that when Cassano became his cellmate in 1996, Cassano had told him that “if [Duggan] ever snitched on him he’d kill [him].” Duggan also said that Cassano “liked a lot of time in the cell by himself” and that Duggan had requested a night job to accommodate Cassano. Cassano had told Duggan that he didn’t fight anymore, he stabbed. On September 18, 1997, Cassano reminded Juanita Murphy, a case manager, that he “had stabbed an inmate in 1992 and that that was why he had been sent to Lucasville.”
The Killing
{¶ 5} On the morning of October 17, 1997, Cassano sent a written message to Unit Manager Ted Harris, noting that he did not have a cellmate and that he wanted Alfred Gibson to be his cellmate. Harris denied this request. Cassano had not received Harris’s written reply when he stabbed Hardy.

{¶ 6} On the afternoon of October 17, Hardy moved into Cassano’s cell. Hardy and others had been in the segregation unit for two days under suspicion of possessing a shank, but Hardy had been exonerated. Inmates described Hardy as weak, even though he became paranoid when he used drugs.
{¶ 7} According to Ollie King, a MANCI sergeant/counselor, Cassano was very upset about having Hardy as his cellmate. On October 17, Cassano told King that “he didn’t want that snitching ass faggot in his cell and that we better check [Cassano’s] record.” King told him to send a message to Ted Harris, the unit manager. Cassano’s friend, inmate Michael Cruz, agreed that Cassano was “very angry” about having Hardy as his cellmate. He also stated that Cassano had told authorities, “You just can’t put any type of motherfucker in my cell, * * * check my record.”
{¶ 8} After Hardy moved in, Cruz remarked to Cassano that he had a new cellmate. Cassano replied, “Not for long.” That same day, Cassano told Duggan that when Cassano had been in Lucasville, prison authorities would not assign him a cellmate unless it was absolutely necessary.
{¶ 9} Cassano became very upset when Hardy broke a TV cable outlet. On October 18, Cassano told inmate James Pharner that Hardy “was driving him nuts, that [if] Harris didn’t move [Hardy] out [of] the cell, that he would * * * remove him himself.”
{¶ 10} On October 21, 1997, at 2:25 a.m., Donald Oats, a MANCI correctional officer, noted that all was quiet. He recalled that the two inmates in Cassano’s cell had been in their bunks doing nothing unusual. Around 2:35 a.m., upon hearing a commotion, Oats hurried to Cassano’s cell. He saw two inmates fighting and ordered them to stop. He also signaled a “man down” alarm and went to call for help. Oats heard Hardy yelling, “[Cassano] has a knife and he’s * * * trying to kill me.” When Oats looked into the cell, Cassano was standing over Hardy and stabbing him with a shank.
{¶ 11} Oats yelled and banged on the cell door and ordered Cassano to stop. Twice, Cassano looked at the light Oats shined on him and then “went right back to sticking inmate Hardy.” Cassano continued to stab Hardy “hot and heavy, except for the two times that he looked at [Oats] for a second or two.” Cassano never said anything, but Hardy was “pleading for help.” Cruz heard Hardy screaming, “[L]let [sic] me out, * * * he’s killing me, he’s stabbing me.”
{¶ 12} Corrections officers James Miller and Dwight Ackerman responded to the “man down” alarm within a minute. Ackerman looked into the cell, saw Cassano bent over “assaulting the other inmate,” and ordered him to stop. Cassano stood up, and Ackerman saw that Cassano had a shank in his right

hand. Cassano then continued stabbing Hardy. Miller ordered Cassano to stop, but Cassano “didn’t look at [Miller.] He looked down and plunged a weapon into inmate Hardy.”
{¶ 13} Although unarmed, Oats opened the cell door and ordered Cassano to the back of the cell. Cassano obeyed that order; he continued to hold the shank, which was tied to his right hand by a laundry-bag string. Cassano “was trying to untie it” but apparently had difficulty because his hand was covered with blood. Cassano wore a glove on his right hand.
{¶ 14} When Miller pulled Hardy out of the cell, Hardy told him, “I am not going to make it.” Within three to five minutes of the alarm, MANCI nurses arrived and began to treat Hardy. Then Hardy was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:37 a.m.
{¶ 15} Dr. Keith Norton, a pathologist, concluded that Hardy bled to death and that his collapsed lungs contributed to his death. Dr. Norton found approximately seventy-five knife wounds, including eight wounds to the head, nine to the neck, twenty-four to the back, fifteen to the chest, and various other wounds to the abdomen, hips, legs, arms, and hands. Any one of ten specific wounds could have caused Hardy’s death, including several to the lungs and one that pierced the heart. Dr. Norton also found abrasions and scratches on Hardy’s body. A toxicologist found cocaine residue in Hardy’s urine but not the blood, which indicated use within the last twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
{¶ 16} In Cassano’s cell, investigators found many bloodstains, including some on the top bunk sheets where Hardy slept. They also found a bloody right-hand glove on the floor and the unsoiled left-hand mate of that glove in a closed desk drawer that belonged to Cassano.
{¶ 17} Throughout that morning, Cassano made various unsolicited comments. As Cassano walked by Hardy after the attack, he asked, “Is he dead?” While in the TV room, Cassano told Miller, “[t]hey’re going to have to check [Hardy] for internal injuries.” At the clinic, Cassano asked if Captain Ben Rachel remembered him as “the one that had stabbed a guy thirty times” several years before.
{¶ 18} At 3:50 a.m., Wanda Haught, a nurse, examined Cassano at the MANCI clinic and found no injuries except red marks caused by handcuffs. Cassano stated that he was not injured but that his shoulder was tired. At 5:15 a.m., Haught noticed a superficial scratch on Cassano’s left side that had not been present at 3:50 a.m.
{¶ 19} Cassano’s pants, T-shirt, and tennis shoes had blood on them. Cassano

asked investigators prior to his giving a blood sample, “What do you need my blood for, that’s all his blood?” Cassano’s blood tested negative for drugs and alcohol.

https://casetext.com/case/cassano-v-bradshaw-2

Sean Carter Ohio Death Row

Sean Carter was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the sexual assault and murder of an elderly woman. According to court documents Sean Carter would sexually assault, assault and murder sixty eight year old Veader Prince at her Farmington Township home in September 1997. Sean Carter was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Sean Carter 2021 Information

Number A356659

DOB 03/09/1979

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 04/03/1998

Institution Warren Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Sean Carter More News

The Ohio Supreme Court has set a date to carry out the sentence for an Ohio Death Row inmate convicted of beating, raping, and fatally stabbing his 68-year-old adoptive grandmother who took him in and cared for him.

At the request of Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, the justices on Wednesday set an execution date of January 22, 2025, for 41-year-old Sean Carter. He was 18 years old when investigators say he violently murdered Veader Prince at her Farmington Township home in September 1997.

“The defendant repeatedly beat the victim with his fists, stabbed her multiple times with a knife, and he forcibly engaged in sexual conduct with the victim (specifically the defendant had anal intercourse with Mrs. Prince),” according to a bill of particulars filed in the case.

Carter has been on death row now for 22 years.

https://www.wfmj.com/story/42671023/execution-date-set-for-inmate-convicted-of-farmington-rape-murder

Cedric Carter Ohio Death Row

Cedric Carter was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a robbery murder. According to court documents Cedric Carter would enter the a United Dairy Farmers convenience store (UDF) in Cincinnati where he would shoot and kill the clerk, Frances Messinger. Cedric Carter would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Cedric Carter 2021 Information

Number A262433

DOB 02/12/1973

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 08/07/1992

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Cedric Carter More News

In the early morning hours of April 6, 1992, Frances Messinger was murdered while working alone as a clerk at a United Dairy Farmers convenience store (“UDF”) in Cincinnati. A grand jury returned an indictment charging appellant, Cedric Carter, in two counts, with aggravated murder in violation of R.C. 2903.01(B) and aggravated robbery in violation of R.C. 2911.01 based on the events surrounding Messinger’s death. The indictment included a felony-murder death specification pursuant to R.C. 2929.04(A)(7), charging Carter with causing death while committing or attempting to commit aggravated robbery, and being the principal offender in an aggravated murder, or alternatively with committing a murder with prior calculation and design. Both counts also contained gun specifications. A jury found Carter guilty as charged and recommended that he be sentenced to death. The death sentence was subsequently imposed by the trial court.

At approximately 2:15 a.m. on April 6, 1992, Carol Blum, a waitress working directly across the street from the UDF, dialed 911 and reported that she had just seen two black males running from the UDF. At trial, Blum testified that immediately prior to calling 911, she saw two men inside the UDF—one man in front of the counter with both arms extended toward the register with hands together pointing to something, and the second man behind the counter near the register. She saw the man behind the counter bend down, and then observed both men run out. The waitress did not see Messinger standing at any time while she was observing the incident. When Messinger’s body was discovered shortly thereafter, an unmelted ice-cream cone was found on the floor of the UDF in the area in front of the counter near the exit doors.

On April 7 one Kenny Hill surrendered himself to authorities in connection with the Messinger murder. Based on information provided by Hill, police obtained a search warrant for an apartment at which Carter was temporarily residing. Carter was arrested in the early morning hours of April 8, 1992 during the course of the search which followed. During the search the police recovered the murder weapon, a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson five-shot revolver manufactured between 1877 and 1891, the hammer of which must be pulled back manually prior to the firing of each round.

Following his arrest, Carter was taken to police headquarters to be interviewed. At approximately 3:50 a.m. Carter signed a waiver of rights form, which recited his rights as delineated in Miranda v. Arizona (1966), 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694. During the tape-recorded statement which followed, Carter admitted being present at the UDF during the course of the robbery, but initially identified Hill as the shooter. The police then discontinued taping the interview, and told Carter his statement was inconsistent with statements police had obtained from other witnesses. Upon resumption of the taping, Carter admitted that he was the shooter at the UDF robbery.

At trial the state and the defense agreed to many of the facts surrounding the robbery. Both parties are in accord that three men were involved: Carter, Hill (who also entered the UDF store), and Virgil Sims (who drove the car used by Carter and Hill before and after the murder). It is undisputed that Carter shot two times and that one bullet lodged in a carton of cigarettes in a cabinet behind the cash register, while the second struck Messinger in her forehead, killing her.

Carter testified at the trial and admitted involvement in the crime. Carter testified that he entered the UDF first (without a gun) and that Hill followed shortly thereafter, carrying with him the .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. Carter ordered an ice cream cone, and while Messinger was standing at the cash register to accept payment for the cone, Hill passed the gun to Carter. Carter denied, however, that he had intended to kill Messinger. He testified that he had been a heavy user of crack cocaine; that he used significant amounts of alcohol, marijuana and crack cocaine during the period leading up to the murder; and that Hill was his supplier. Although Carter admitted that he entered the store with the intent to rob it, he testified that he and Hill had not talked about robbing the store until immediately prior to the robbery. He further testified that he never intended to be the one to hold the gun during the robbery. He admitted, however, that he knew the gun had bullets, and that Hill had showed him earlier in the day how to shoot it. He further admitted that before robbing the UDF the three had participated in “a lot” of robberies of drug dealers that same evening, and that only Hill had used the gun to threaten the victims in those robberies while Carter remained in the car. Carter testified that he first fired the gun at the floor to scare Messinger as she pushed the gun away and shut the register drawer. Carter testified he told Messinger to open the cash register, but she refused. He stated that Hill then suggested leaving, and that as they turned to leave, he fired a second shot when Messinger began fumbling in an apparent attempt to push an alarm button. Carter maintained consistently that he did not aim at Messinger, but instead aimed to fire a shot by her to scare her, and never intended to shoot her.

Medical testimony established that Messinger was killed as a result of a bullet wound which entered her forehead slightly left of the midline. The bullet traveled sharply left to right, and front to rear, with a slight upward angle. No stippling or gunpowder burns were found on Messinger’s skin, indicating that the gun had been fired from a distance greater than one foot.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1742235.html