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Calvin Neyland Ohio Death Row

Calvin Neyland was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a double murder. According to court documents Calvin Neyland would murder his boss and the companies safety officer after being fired from his job. Calvin Neyland would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Calvin Neyland 2021 Information

Number A595111

DOB 01/30/1964

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 11/19/2008

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Calvin Neyland More News

Evidence introduced at trial showed that Neyland began working as a truck driver for Liberty Transportation Company in Perrysburg, Ohio, in July 2006.

{¶ 3} Beginning in March 2007, Neyland was cited several times for falsifying his driver’s logs and for committing other driving violations. On July 24, 2007, Liberty notified Neyland in writing of these infractions and informed him that any further violations for completing a false document would result in his termination from the company.

{¶ 4} Doug Smith was the branch manager for Liberty Transportation in Perrysburg. During the spring of 2007, Smith noticed a change in Neyland’s attitude and performance. Smith was receiving complaints from Liberty’s customers about Neyland, and some of them did not want Neyland to return to their businesses. Neyland and Smith had a meeting about one of the complaints. The meeting resulted in a bizarre ending with Neyland seated in a lawn chair outside Smith’s office, repeatedly phoning him, while Smith remained in his office with the doors locked.

{¶ 5} During late July or early August 2007, Anthony Arent, the shipping manager at nearby Great Lakes Windows, overheard Neyland on the phone with Smith. Arent testified that Neyland was “very uncooperative” during the conversation and that he resorted to profanity, calling Smith “a bitch.” William Lynch Jr., a truck driver for Liberty, talked to Neyland about a week before the murders. Neyland, who was upset with Smith, warned, “If they mess with me, I’ll just shoot them.”

{¶ 6} On August 1, 2007, Neyland was involved in a vehicle accident and was determined to be at fault. Following this incident, officials at Liberty decided to terminate Neyland’s employment.

{¶ 7} Smith scheduled a meeting with Neyland at Smith’s office at 8:00 a.m. on August 8, 2007, to terminate Neyland’s employment. Thomas Lazar, the safety director for Liberty, planned to attend this meeting because Smith did not want to be alone with Neyland when he terminated him. Lazar also planned to remove the Department of Transportation (“DOT”) sticker that was attached to the door of Neyland’s tractor-trailer.

{¶ 8} On August 8, Neyland delayed the meeting three times before he finally agreed to meet with Smith and Lazar at 3:00 p.m. During one conversation to reschedule the meeting, Neyland told Smith that if Smith was going to have somebody at the meeting, then he was going to bring somebody, too.

{¶ 9} At approximately 3:00 p.m., Neyland arrived outside Liberty’s warehouse in his tractor. Neyland was wearing a dark Hawaiian shirt. It is unclear whether Neyland met with either Lazar or Smith when he first arrived. In any event, Neyland shot Lazar four times in the back and once in the arm in the yard outside the building. Neyland then entered Liberty’s warehouse with a gun in his hand and walked up the stairway to Smith’s office.

{¶ 10} Smith called 9–1–1 and reported that he heard shots being fired. He told the 9–1–1 operator that he needed to get downstairs to see what was going on. On the recording of the call, two gunshots can be heard and a voice says, “crawl bitch.” There is then the sound of a struggle, and Smith repeatedly calls for help. A final shot was then fired. Neyland had killed Smith in his office with a single gunshot to the head.

{¶ 11} Afterwards, Neyland left the warehouse with the gun in his hand. He walked to his tractor and drove away.

{¶ 12} Police officers arriving at the scene found Lazar lying on the lawn in front of Liberty’s warehouse. He died at the scene shortly thereafter. Officers also went upstairs and found Smith’s dead body lying on the floor near his desk. A description of Neyland’s tractor, along with a partial license-plate number, was broadcast to law-enforcement agencies.

{¶ 13} Investigators collected shell casings outside the warehouse and around Smith’s office. They found one bullet hole that went through Smith’s chair and into the wall and another bullet hole in the wall behind the chair. Investigators also found paperwork about Neyland’s performance, including a driver’s vehicle-inspection report, in the middle of the desk.

{¶ 14} After the shooting, Neyland drove to the Silver Blue Motel in Monroe County, Michigan, where he was staying. During the late afternoon of August 8, 2007, police officers spotted Neyland’s tractor parked outside the motel. Officers watched the tractor until the Monroe County Special Weapons and Tactics (“SWAT”) team arrived.

{¶ 15} Around 6:00 p.m., Neyland came out of his motel room, got into the tractor, and drove the short distance to the motel office. The SWAT team then approached the vehicle and arrested Neyland. As he was being placed on the ground, Neyland said, “I was going to turn myself in.” Neyland also said, “I want the letter. There’s a letter in my truck. It’s to my brother. It’s my last will.” When asked if he had any weapons before being handcuffed, Neyland said, “No, the gun is in the truck by the door.”

{¶ 16} Neyland was placed in a police cruiser following his arrest. Sgt. Keith Williamson of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (“BCI & I”) Crime Scene Unit, obtained a gunshot-residue sample from Neyland’s hands.

{¶ 17} After obtaining a search warrant, the police seized evidence from Neyland’s tractor. A Ruger 9 mm handgun and magazine inside a holster, another weapon magazine, and a dark Hawaiian shirt were found between the driver’s and the passenger’s seats. Sgt. Williamson also obtained a gunshot-residue sample from the steering wheel.

{¶ 18} During the search of the tractor, the police collected an envelope addressed to Phyllis Gregory with Neyland’s return address. Inside the envelope were three default-payment notices that had been sent to Neyland for four storage units. On each of the notices, Neyland had handwritten some variation of the following statement: “This may be my last will and testament. You may have these items. I will no longer be able to pay; these are paid til 8/1/07.” Two of the statements were signed by Neyland. On the reverse side of one notice, Neyland wrote that additional items were located at the Silver Blue Motel. Beneath this last statement, Neyland wrote an address next to his brother’s name.

{¶ 19} Dr. Cynthia Beisser, M.D., deputy coroner for Lucas County, conducted the autopsies on Smith and Lazar. Dr. Beisser testified that Smith died from one gunshot wound to the head. The gunshot entered Smith’s right cheek and exited just above his left ear.

{¶ 20} Dr. Beisser testified that Lazar was shot four times in the back and once in the right arm. Three of the shots in the back were in close proximity and displayed a triangular pattern. Gunpowder stippling around one of the gunshot wounds in the back indicated “an intermediate range of fire.” Dr. Beisser concluded that Lazar’s death resulted from multiple gunshot wounds.

{¶ 21} After obtaining a search warrant, the police searched Neyland’s storage units. In one of the units, the police found two spotting scopes set up in the middle of the unit with pieces of paper underneath. The top piece of paper stated, “If your big dumb retard ass wasn’t in here!!! You wouldn’t be reading this would you?” A paper underneath that one stated, “OOOO, I’m so scared. Three Round Shot Group.” On the same paper, three pennies were arranged in a triangular pattern with circles drawn around them. Below the pennies, there was the statement, “You think I’m playing[.] You’re gonna come up missing!!!” Numerous firearms and ammunition were also found in the storage unit.

{¶ 22} Daniel Davison, a forensic scientist at BCI & I, performed a gunshot-residue analysis on samples from Neyland’s hands and from the steering wheel of the tractor. Davison testified that test results were “highly indicative of gunshot residue” on one of the samples from Neyland’s hands and on a sample from the steering wheel.

{¶ 23} Todd Wharton, a forensic scientist at BCI & I, compared Neyland’s fingerprints with a fingerprint lifted from a weapons magazine found in Neyland’s tractor. Wharton testified that his comparison identified the print of Neyland’s left little finger on the magazine.

{¶ 24} Wharton also examined the Ruger 9 mm semiautomatic pistol found in Neyland’s tractor. Testing established that the empty cartridge cases collected at the murder scene were fired from this firearm. Testing also confirmed that bullets recovered from the scene and from the Lazar autopsy had been fired by this firearm.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1666176.html

David Myers Ohio Death Row

David Myers was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a robbery murder. According to court documents David Myers would sexually assault, rob and murder the victim Amanda Jo Maher with a rail road spike. David Myers would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

David Myers 2021 Information

Number A327020

DOB 01/19/1965

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 03/01/1996

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

David Myers More News

During the early morning hours of August 4, 1988, Amanda Maher was found barely alive near the railroad tracks on the south side of Xenia. Maher died shortly thereafter while being flown to the hospital. Defendant-appellant, David L. Myers, who had been seen walking with Maher in the direction of the railroad tracks shortly before her body was discovered there, was indicted for the murder of Maher. The case was declared nolle prosequi in February 1991. Two years later, Myers was reindicted for the murder of Maher and was subsequently found guilty of aggravated murder and sentenced to death.

{¶ 2} On August 3, 1988, Amanda Maher, and her boyfriend, Glenn Smith, went to the Five Points Tavern, a.k.a. Leahy’s, in Xenia following an afternoon of house-hunting for themselves and their daughter, Sarah. The couple had a few drinks and left Five Points at around 7:30 p.m. to attend the Greene County Fair. They arrived back at Five Points around 9:30 to 10:00 p.m., and Smith resumed drinking while shooting pool with Lee Weimer, the bartender on duty.

{¶ 3} Between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. that night, David Myers arrived at Five Points and played pool and drank with Smith. Smith recognized Myers as an occasional customer of the tavern from Smith’s work there as a weekend bartender. During this time, Myers remarked to Smith about the Mickey Mouse shirt Maher was wearing, to the effect that he wanted to play with Mickey’s ears or nose because he liked where they were positioned on the shirt. Smith admonished Myers that he did not appreciate the remark. Smith left the bar for about fifteen minutes to get fresh air, then came back and resumed drinking and shooting pool with Myers.

{¶ 4} Sometime after midnight, Smith and Maher left to go to the nearby Round Table bar. Myers asked to come along, and the three drove over to the Round Table in Smith’s car. After arriving at the bar, Maher went inside, but Smith “had a few more words” with Myers before they went in. Smith was upset with Myers about sexual remarks he was making about Maher. After Myers and Smith went inside, Smith got “kind of rowdy” while drinking whiskey slammers with Myers. Teresa Mellotte, the bartender on duty that night at the Round Table, warned Smith to quit or she would ask him to leave. Smith threw his glass to the floor, and when he refused to leave, Mellotte phoned the police.

{¶ 5} Smith became belligerent with two Xenia police officers, Patrolmen Daniel Savage and Richard E. Rinehart, who arrived on the scene at approximately 1:15 a.m. The officers escorted Smith outside, where Savage handcuffed him and placed him under arrest. He then explained to Maher what was going to happen with Smith. Maher asked whether she could have Smith’s wallet, and Smith allowed Savage to retrieve it from his back pocket to give to Maher. Smith also allowed Savage to retrieve what Smith thought were his car keys. Maher discovered shortly thereafter that none of the keys she received fit Smith’s car. At that point, Myers approached Savage and told him, “I will make sure she gets home. I will take care of her.” Myers also told Smith in the back of the patrol car, “I will take care of her, Glenn.”

{¶ 6} Savage took Smith to the county jail while Rinehart followed in his patrol car. Rinehart left the jail at 1:23 a.m. and resumed his patrol duties. Meanwhile, Maher and Myers reentered the Round Table looking for Smith’s car keys. Maher borrowed a flashlight from Mellotte in order to look for the keys in the parking lot. Charles Van Hoose, a bar patron at the Round Table, noticed that Myers had his arm around Maher, reassuring her that he would take care of everything. When Van Hoose looked out the tavern door while buying another beer, he saw Myers and Maher walk across the tavern parking lot toward Home Avenue.

{¶ 7} Also at this time, Officer Rinehart was in his police car on patrol and saw Myers and Maher walking northwest on the sidewalk along Home Avenue toward South Detroit Street. He testified that he saw Maher approximately three hundred yards from the spot where she was eventually discovered, barely alive.

{¶ 8} At 2:10 a.m., Lee Weimer looked out the door of the Five Points Tavern and saw Myers, alone, getting into his car and driving away. Around 2:15 a.m., Myers entered the Round Table, ordered a drink from Mellotte, and went straight to the restroom for several minutes. Don Hilderbrand was one of the few patrons left in the bar. Earlier, he had seen Smith break the glass and get arrested. He also had seen Myers and Maher leave the bar together approximately twenty minutes after Smith’s arrest. When Myers came out of the restroom, Hilderbrand asked Myers “if he got any [sex]” from Maher. Myers responded that “he tried, but she wasn’t willing and he just dropped her off.”

{¶ 9} At approximately 3:00 a.m., Jennifer Berry was walking home with a friend when she came upon “a girl laying [sic] on the tracks” gasping for air. Berry and the friend ran to her house, talked the situation over, and called the police. Officer John Waldren was first on the scene after receiving a dispatch for “a female down in the area” of Railroad Street. The officer called out to her but could only hear moans and groans. The woman, later identified as Maher, had a shirt pulled up around her neck with no other clothing on. Officer Savage, who was in the area nearby investigating a burglary, also heard the police dispatch and ran down to the railroad tracks. Savage did not recognize Maher from his earlier encounter with her at the Round Table bar. He noticed what he thought was a cinder on the right side of Maher’s face. He suddenly realized that a railroad spike had been driven into her head. He also noticed that little blood was coming out of that wound.

{¶ 10} Maher was rushed to Greene Memorial Hospital but died shortly after 6:00 a.m. while being life-flighted to Miami Valley Hospital. Robert D. Setzer, an agent of the BCI Crime Scene Search Unit, went to the Greene Memorial Hospital, where Maher’s body had been returned, and performed tape lifts on Maher’s hands and pubic area for evidence.

{¶ 11} Dr. Justin G. Krause, the Greene County Coroner, observed most of the autopsy performed by a Dr. Mannarino. Dr. Krause testified that Maher had sustained two fractures to her jaw as the result of a blunt force injury and noted that some knitted material wrapped tightly around her throat caused an abrasion on her neck. He further opined that Maher’s forehead wounds were caused by an attempt to drive a railroad spike into her forehead. The spike driven into Maher’s right temple acted as a plug that permitted only minimal bleeding. Fingernail mark patterns on Maher’s neck indicated that the perpetrator had sustained an injury to his right ring finger. Myers suffered such an injury in a motorcycle accident one month prior to the murder.

{¶ 12} During the autopsy, three stones were removed from Maher’s vaginal canal through her abdominal cavity. The three stones were approximately the same size and measured roughly seven centimeters by four centimeters, and 1/2 centimeter around. Dr. Krause opined that it was likely that the stones were inserted in Maher’s vaginal canal after she was unconscious. Maher died of severe head trauma, produced by a penetrating railroad spike through her right temple and attempted strangulation.

{¶ 13} Xenia police apprehended Myers later on the afternoon of August 4, but he denied killing Maher. Myers claimed that he had last seen Maher on her hands and knees looking for car keys in the Round Table parking lot. A search of Myers’s Ford Mustang pursuant to a warrant resulted in the discovery of wallets belonging to Maher and Smith, stuffed inside a glove under the front passenger seat. While Myers was being booked at the county jail, he remarked to Deputy Sheriff Thomas A. Adkins, “Tom, man, cocaine will make you do anything. It will make you do anything to get it.”

{¶ 14} On August 8, 1988, the grand jury indicted Myers on one count of aggravated murder. A death penalty specification alleged that Myers had committed the aggravated murder during a robbery. On February 1, 1991, the prosecuting attorney entered a nolle prosequi on the murder indictment against Myers. Around one month later, Myers was arraigned on eleven counts of forgery. On April 22, 1991, he pled guilty to the forgery charges and was sentenced to three years in prison.

{¶ 15} After the nolle prosequi, Greene County authorities continued investigating the Maher murder case. On February 12, 1993, Myers was arraigned upon reindictment in the Maher murder on a charge identical to that declared nolle prosequi in February 1991. Over the next few years, Myers’s case was continued repeatedly at his request. The trial court overruled several defense motions to dismiss the case on speedy trial grounds.

{¶ 16} Finally, on January 9, 1996, a jury trial began, which lasted nearly a month. At trial, Mark Timmons, a fellow inmate of Myers in 1989, testified that he had overheard Myers discussing his case with another inmate at the county jail. In two conversations, Myers had talked of being with Maher around the railroad tracks.

{¶ 17} David Tincher was incarcerated in the same county jail cellblock as Myers during August 1988. Myers said to Tincher out of the blue, “They couldn’t get me on a rape.” Myers also asked Tincher whether he had ever “put three rocks in a girl.” Tincher responded that he had not, and Myers stated that he had. Tincher knew nothing of Maher’s murder, except that it involved a railroad spike. A few days later, Tincher asked Myers, “Why a railroad spike?” Myers replied, “Because it was handy.” After that, Myers told Tincher, “Don’t ever try to drive nothing through nobody’s forehead. * * * He said it won’t go, but he said it went through the temple.”

{¶ 18} Also during trial, three expert witnesses testified on behalf of the state regarding the foreign hair found on Maher. BCI forensic scientist Michelle Yezzo opined that she was 100 percent certain that the hair was a human pubic hair from a Caucasian. Yezzo found similarities and differences in her comparison of pubic hair samples provided by Myers. However, she could neither confirm nor eliminate Myers as the donor of the pubic hair and suggested that the prosecutor’s office submit the pubic hair to another lab for further analysis.

{¶ 19} Forensic scientist Larry M. Dehus analyzed the foreign pubic hair and found that the microscopic characteristics “were identical to the microscopic characteristics found in the known hair sample” from Myers. Forensic scientist Richard Bisbing also analyzed the foreign pubic hair and found it “indistinguishable microscopically” from the pubic hair sample provided by Myers.

{¶ 20} Dr. Edward Blake, a forensic serologist, subjected the foreign pubic hair to DNA analysis. Using the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) method, Dr. Blake concluded that the foreign pubic hair bore the same “DQ Alpha genotype” as the known sample from Myers. He further testified that such a genotype is found in approximately two percent of the Caucasian population of North America.

{¶ 21} During the state’s case in chief, Myers’s civil deposition was read into the record. This deposition had been taken in 1992 by attorneys for the Greene County Prosecuting Attorney in connection with a federal lawsuit filed by Myers after the murder charges against him were dismissed in February 1991.

{¶ 22} Deborah Reagin was the final witness to testify for the state. Reagin asserted that Myers had offered her a ride home after she had had a fight with her boyfriend in a Xenia bar in February 1986. Reagin testified that Myers had raped her in a cemetery before dropping her off at her dorm in Yellow Springs. Myers later entered an Alford plea to sexual battery, was found guilty, and was sentenced to six months in jail and five years’ probation.

{¶ 23} The defense called 19 witnesses, and the state countered with 4 rebuttal witnesses. After deliberation, the jury found Myers guilty as charged.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1066020.html

Frederick Mundt Ohio Death Row

Frederick Mundt was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a sexual assault and murder. According to court documents Frederick Mundt would sexually assault and murder seven year old Brittany Hendrickson the daughter of his girlfriend. Frederick Mundt would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Frederick Mundt 2021 Information

Number A486456

DOB 08/23/1974

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 12/17/2004

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Frederick Mundt More News

On March 9, 2004, seven-year-old Brittany Hendrickson disappeared from her home in Noble County. The next day, searchers found Brittany’s raped, battered body hidden in a nearby abandoned well. Appellant, Frederick A. Mundt, was convicted of the aggravated murder of Brittany and sentenced to death.

{¶ 2} The evidence at Mundt’s trial revealed that Brittany’s mother, Misty Hendrickson, became acquainted with Mundt in 1999. She and her daughters, Brittany and Lindsay, soon moved into Mundt’s house in Lower Salem, Noble County. In 2004, Mundt and Hendrickson lived there with Brittany and Lindsay, and their infant son, Shay Mundt. Mundt’s mother, Sarah Mundt, lived nearby with her boyfriend Tim Bowman and their adult daughters, Mundt’s half-sisters, Timica, Teresa, and Mary Anne Bowman.

{¶ 3} During the late morning or early afternoon of March 9, 2004, Mundt visited the Biolife Plasma Services Plasma Center in Parkersburg, West Virginia to sell his blood plasma.

{¶ 4} March 9, 2004, was a school day for Brittany Hendrickson. The school bus brought her home that day around 4:10 p.m., and her bus driver saw her go inside the house.

{¶ 5} Five or ten minutes later, Mundt’s stepfather, Tim Bowman, arrived. Bowman and Sarah, along with their daughter Mary Anne and her date, had plans to play bingo that night in Woodsfield, Ohio. Bowman came to invite Hendrickson to join them. After checking with Mundt, Hendrickson accepted. Bowman was at Mundt’s house for five to ten minutes; during that time, he saw Brittany and Lindsay at play.

{¶ 6} Hendrickson fed her daughters about 4:45 p.m. Half an hour later, Bowman arrived at Mundt’s house to pick Hendrickson up.

{¶ 7} Hendrickson said goodbye and “told the kids to go upstairs with their dad [Mundt] when they [were] done eating.” Although Bowman did not enter the house, he recalled hearing Hendrickson telling the girls to eat dinner and go upstairs.

{¶ 8} Around 8:00 p.m., Mundt arrived at the Bowman residence with Lindsay and Shay. Timica and Teresa Bowman were present. Mundt asked Timica if Brittany was there and said, “[S]he ain’t up home, and I have to find her.” Leaving the children with Teresa, Mundt and Timica drove to Woodsfield.

{¶ 9} They arrived at the bingo hall around 8:30 p.m. Mundt approached Hendrickson and asked if Brittany was with her. Hendrickson replied, “No, I left her there with you.” She got up, grabbed her coat, and left with Mundt and Timica. The three then drove back to Mundt’s house. At 9:18 p.m., Hendrickson called the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office to report Brittany missing. Officers immediately began to search for Brittany, a search that lasted into the next day.

{¶ 10} On March 10, a civilian volunteer taking part in the search noticed a sheet of tin covering the opening of an old well on property near Mundt’s house. Moving the tin revealed a chunk of concrete wedged into the opening of the well. The surface of the well water was visible around the sides of the concrete chunk. The volunteer looked into the well and saw a pair of green shoes floating amid some debris. The volunteer reported his find and led sheriff’s deputies to the well.

{¶ 11} The deputies recovered one of the shoes and brought it to Hendrickson, who identified it as Brittany’s. Other officers removed the chunk of concrete and recovered Brittany’s body from the well.

{¶ 12} Shortly after the officers recovered her body, Agents Gary Wilgus and William Hatfield of the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (“BCI”) arrived at the crime scene. Wilgus noted numerous abrasions and contusions on Brittany’s head. Her jeans were undone, and the leg bottoms partly covered her feet.

{¶ 13} Hatfield found bloodstains and hairs on the chunk of concrete from the well. Hatfield later weighed and measured the chunk; it was 36 inches long and 14 inches wide at its widest point and weighed 254 pounds.

{¶ 14} According to Hendrickson, Mundt stated on the morning of March 10 that “they will probably pin this on him * * * because he was supposed to be the last one to see her.”

{¶ 15} Detective Sergeant Mark Warden and Lieutenant Seevers of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office interviewed Mundt after Brittany’s body was found. Mundt asked whether a condemned prisoner could “choose between lethal injection and the gas chamber.” Warden then informed Mundt that Brittany’s body had been found and that Warden “felt he was responsible for [her] death.” Mundt denied it.

{¶ 16} Warden noted that Mundt’s forearms were scratched. Mundt claimed that the family dog had knocked him down some steps while he was looking for Brittany. When Warden expressed disbelief, Mundt merely hung his head. Biolife Plasma Services personnel later testified that Mundt did not have those scratches on his arm when he sold plasma on the morning of March 9.

{¶ 17} Seevers asked Mundt whether Brittany could have been sexually assaulted. Mundt first said no, then asked, “Well, how would I know?” The officers then took a DNA swab and collected other trace evidence from Mundt’s person. As Warden was cataloguing these items, Mundt asked: “Do you think I should die?” Warden replied, “Well, do you think you should be put to death?” Mundt said, “Yes.”

{¶ 18} Dr. P.S.S. Sreenivasa Murthy, a pathologist and deputy coroner for Stark and Wayne Counties, conducted an autopsy on Brittany, assisted by Dr. Anthony Bertin, a urologist, who examined Brittany’s genitalia.

{¶ 19} Dr. Murthy found that Brittany had extensive blunt-force head injuries. These included multiple lacerations and bruises, a skull fracture, and hemorrhaging and contusions of the brain. She also had blunt-force injuries to her trunk and extremities.

{¶ 20} Brittany’s lungs were hyperinflated and contained excess fluid, leading Dr. Murthy to conclude that she had drowned in the well. But because Brittany was 47 inches tall while the water in the well was only 30 to 36 inches deep, Murthy concluded that Brittany’s injuries had left her unable to stand up. Murthy also concluded that given the severity of her injuries, Brittany would have died within 10 to 15 minutes. Thus, Murthy concluded that she died both of drowning and of her multiple blunt-force injuries.

{¶ 21} Dr. Bertin, the urologist, observed that Brittany’s panties were soaked with blood. Her vaginal opening was “imploded,” as if a large object had been forced into it. Her vaginal walls had been “ripped apart,” with deep, full-length lacerations on both sides. In Dr. Bertin’s opinion, a rigid object, approximately two and one-half inches in diameter, had been forced up Brittany’s vaginal canal with “considerable force.”

{¶ 22} Diane Larson, a BCI forensic scientist, examined numerous evidentiary items. Those yielding significant DNA evidence included vaginal swabs taken during Brittany’s autopsy, fabric cut from the crotch of Brittany’s panties, a bloodstained bedsheet found on the bed in Mundt’s master bedroom, and a bloodstained shirt found in Mundt’s bathroom and identified as his.

{¶ 23} Larson found sperm cells on the vaginal swabs and on Brittany’s panties. She identified a mixture of two DNA profiles on the sperm fraction of the vaginal swabs. One of the mixed profiles was consistent with Mundt; the other was consistent with Brittany. The proportion of the population that could not be excluded as a possible contributor to that mixture was one in 203,800.

{¶ 24} On the panties, Larson identified “two clean separate DNA profiles.” The major profile, or largest amount, came from sperm and was consistent with Mundt’s DNA. The expected frequency of the major profile was one in approximately 39 quadrillion, 350 trillion persons. The minor profile was consistent with Brittany’s DNA.

{¶ 25} On the bedsheet, DNA testing showed a mixture of two DNA profiles. The major profile was consistent with Mundt’s DNA; the minor profile was consistent with Brittany’s. The expected frequency of the minor profile was one in 146 million persons.

{¶ 26} Mark Losko, another forensic scientist at BCI, testified that testing on Mundt’s shirt revealed a mixture of two DNA profiles. The major profile was consistent with Brittany’s DNA. The expected frequency of that profile was one in 4.7 quadrillion persons. The minor profile was consistent with Mundt’s DNA.

{¶ 27} After Mundt’s arrest, his half-brother, Johnny Mundt, visited him in jail. Johnny testified that he asked Mundt “if he done it.” Mundt admitted that he had raped Brittany. Then he asked Johnny “if I can get the stuff out of the house.” Mundt told Johnny that “the stuff” was behind the stereo. Johnny agreed to remove it.

{¶ 28} On April 24 and 25, 2004, while Mundt was incarcerated in the county jail, he had several telephone conversations with Johnny. In these conversations, Mundt repeatedly urged Johnny to remove and destroy certain “stuff” or “trash” located in the wall behind the stereo in Mundt’s house. The sheriff’s office recorded these conversations, and the state introduced them at trial.

{¶ 29} These recordings convey Mundt’s sense of urgency and concern for secrecy because he continually expressed his anxiety about when Johnny was going to burn the “trash” and whether he had burned “all of it.” He warned Johnny that their conversation was being taped and reminded him several times not to let their mother see him burning the “trash.”

{¶ 30} On April 24, Mundt asked Johnny: “Hey, did you get all that stuff out of there where the radio is? * * * Would you be able to get that out?”

{¶ 31} Mundt continued:

{¶ 32} “You going to burn that stuff? * * * Well, make sure Mom ain’t down there when you get burning that. * * * I really-really hope you can do that for me.”

{¶ 33} “You, uh, sure you can get that stuff out of there? * * * I’m really a-hoping. * * * ‘Cause I’m really wanting that stuff out of there. You hear? * * * Make sure you get it all.”

{¶ 34} “Yeah, I hope you do that, take-take that trash out. Out-out back of the stereo. I really need to get that out of the house. You hear? * * * Back behind the stereo, yeah. Where the wall’s at? * * * Down in there. * * * You going to burn all that? * * * That would do me a lot of good.”

{¶ 35} On the following day, Mundt talked to Johnny three more times. In the first of these conversations, Mundt asked: “Did you get all that trash burnt?” Mundt explained that the “trash” was hidden in the wall to the left of the stereo “where the insulation [was] moved,” approximately two feet away from the drywall. He instructed Johnny to “find all that trash” and “get rid of that for me and burn it. * * * Don’t have Ma and them up there.” He also warned Johnny that “[t]his telephone’s taped.”

{¶ 36} In their second conversation on April 25, Mundt pressed Johnny: “Did you get it? * * * Did you get all of it? * * * Make sure you burn all that trash. * * * Mom and them can’t see that.”

{¶ 37} In his third April 25 conversation with Johnny, Mundt again asked: “Did you make sure that other trash is burnt?” He told Johnny to “make sure that burns up nice and good. * * * Make sure there ain’t nothing left of it. * * * ‘Cause they be up there looking through that next.” Johnny said, “They’re done up there, they ain’t gonna go back up there.” Mundt replied, “Don’t bet on it.”

{¶ 38} According to Johnny, he eventually found “a little hole” in the corner of a room in Mundt’s house. In that hole, Johnny found a pair of boxer shorts, a T-shirt, a pair of girl’s socks, and a pillowcase, each spattered with blood. Johnny put these items into a box and hid the box in another part of the house. The next day, he took the box home and burned it with the bloodstained items inside.

{¶ 39} On April 26, Mundt talked to Sarah Mundt from jail. The sheriff’s office recorded this conversation. Sarah mentioned that Johnny had been burning things the night before, including a box. Mundt had his mother describe the box, then asked: “He burn it?” Mundt pressed Sarah for details: “Did you go up with him last night? * * * Did he pour gas on all that trash? * * * Did it burn?”

{¶ 40} On May 3, 2004, police searched Mundt’s house again. In a second-floor room, between a floor joist and the exterior wall, they found the space where Mundt had hidden the bloodstained items.

{¶ 41} Police cut out a section of the floor joist from the hiding place. The joist tested positive for blood. Mark Losko, the BCI forensic scientist, found a mixture of two DNA profiles on the joist. The major contributor’s DNA profile was consistent with Brittany’s and would be found in one of 4.7 quadrillion persons. The minor contributor’s DNA profile was consistent with Mundt’s and would be found in one of 139 persons.

{¶ 42} On June 19, Mundt had yet another phone conversation with his mother from jail, and this too was recorded by the sheriff’s office. Mundt urged his mother to remove his weights from his house: “You need to get those weights out of there. * * * They’ll use that against me. * * * They’ll try to say that I lifted those things down there. * * * Well, at least take some of the weights off the weight bench. * * * Did you take any weights off it?”

Verdict and Sentence

{¶ 43} At trial, the jury found Mundt guilty of four counts of aggravated murder, each with four death specifications; two counts of rape, R.C. 2907.02(A)(1)(b) and (A)(2); and one count of kidnapping.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1277025.html

Samuel Moreland Ohio Death Row

Samuel Moreland was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for five murders. According to court documents Samuel Moreland would murder girlfriend, 46-year-old Glenna Green, her daughter, 23-year-old Lana Green, and her grandchildren, seven-year-old Daytrin Talbott, six-year-old Datwan Talbott and six-year-old Violana Green, in their Dayton home. Samuel Moreland would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Samuel Moreland 2021 Information

Number A190490

DOB 01/30/1954

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 05/06/1986

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Samuel Moreland More News

At first, Tia Talbott thought Samuel Moreland’s conviction for the 1985 murders of five of her family members would end in his swift execution. Moreland was convicted in the killing of Talbott’s mother, sister, two sons and niece at their home on Dayton’s South Ardmore Avenue.But now more than 30 years later, she is still waiting for it to happen.

“He’s a vicious, cold-blooded killer. He murdered my family,” Talbott said.

Talbott has watched with frustration as Moreland has managed to delay execution for decades through a barrage of courtroom appeals at the state and federal level. It has left her angry at the criminal justice system and wondering if people in the system have forgotten the victims.

“My family is valuable. They’re human beings. They’re worth something and they should act like it and do justice for them,” Talbott said.
An I-Team investigation found Moreland is the Miami Valley’s longest-running resident on the Ohio prison system’s Death Row. He has been in the prison system since May 6, 1986. Repeated attempts to interview Moreland in prison have been denied. The state prison system recently rejected yet another interview request. It comes just as Moreland’s latest legal maneuver won support from a judge to allow re-testing of some DNA evidence from the original trial.

The re-testing effort was spearheaded by Mark Godsey, director of the Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati Law School. The group has taken up Moreland’s case and has pushed for more DNA testing to help determine guilt or innocence

“Any time there’s DNA evidence that could be done to shed some light on the question, we think it should be done in the interest of fairness and justice,” Godsey said.

One of the original investigators on the case, Dan Baker, who was a Dayton Police Lieutenant at the time, said there is no doubt Moreland is guilty. He too did not anticipate that Moreland would still be successfully fighting the death penalty for more than three decades.

“Sammy Moreland has been able to work the system many, many times,” Baker said

Montgomery County Prosecutor Matt Heck was also part of the original case as an assistant prosecutor. To this day he is still defending the guilty verdict and death sentence from a three judge panel in 1986. Heck remains confident that the re-testing of the DNA evidence will have no influence on the case, stating emphatically that Moreland is the killer

“I don’t think there is any question about it. This individual was positively identified by someone that knew him, someone who was there and someone injured, almost killed at the hands of Samuel Moreland,” Heck said.

According to Heck, the evidence to be re-tested has been moved to a lab, but the work may not be completed for several months. Tia Talbott is hoping that the latest legal move by Moreland will be his last and that when the testing is completed the execution can go forward. What would Talbott say about it then?

“The pain is still going to be there, but the monster is gone,” said Talbott. She too, believes the evidence will point to Samuel Moreland.

https://www.whio.com/news/team-still-alive-death-row/vR4v8IbLqCraYoqx4jq5wN/

Lee Moore Ohio Death Row

Lee Moore was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a robbery murder. According to court documents Lee Moore would abduct the victim Melvin Olinger at gunpoint and force him into the trunk of a car. Melvin Olinger was driven to a remote location where he was robbed and fatally shot. Lee Moore would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Lee Moore 2021 Information

Number A305700

DOB 10/19/1974

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 12/16/1994

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Lee Moore More News

On the evening of January 14, 1994, defendant-appellant, Lee Edward Moore, Jr., and Jason Holmes abducted Melvin Olinger at gunpoint and forced him into the trunk of his blue Ford Taurus. Moore drove Olinger’s car to Mt. Healthy, dropped Holmes off, and picked up Larry Kinley. The two drove Olinger’s car to a factory area in Cincinnati, where Moore ordered Olinger out of the trunk, robbed him of his wallet, and shot him in the head, killing him. Moore later admitted committing the crimes but claimed that the shooting was accidental. Moore was subsequently convicted of aggravated murder, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery, and sentenced to death.

On January 14, at approximately 7:20 p.m., Melvin Olinger, a suburban Chicago businessman, visited his parents in Fairfield. Olinger then went to a funeral home during calling hours for a friend who had passed away. Later, he went to Gina’s, a bar, around 9:00 to 9:30 p.m., where he talked with Charlotte James. He told her that he was going to visit his mother that evening before returning to Chicago the next day. Olinger stayed in the bar for about fifteen minutes.

That same evening, Moore and Jason Holmes drove to Fairfield, intending to steal a car. Moore waited outside Gina’s and saw Olinger get out of his blue Ford Taurus and enter the bar. When Olinger returned to his car, Moore confronted him with a gun and told Olinger to get in. Moore drove the Taurus to the rear of the bar and forced Olinger to climb into the trunk. Moore drove the Taurus to Larry Kinley’s house in Mt. Healthy while Holmes followed in Moore’s Ford Fairmont.

Moore and Kinley drove to a store in the Taurus, leaving Holmes behind to babysit. Moore told Kinley how he had stolen the car and that he was going to get it painted and modified. Moore told Kinley that he was driving to the Cumminsville area of Cincinnati to show the car to a friend. Instead, Moore drove to a factory area at 3366 Llewellyn Street. On the way, Moore told Kinley that he was going to kill the man in the trunk. When Kinley asked Moore why he was going to kill the man, Moore responded, “This ain’t nothing․ We’re not going to get caught for it.”

Upon driving into the factory area, Moore headed toward a dumpster. He stopped the car and let Olinger out of the trunk while Kinley remained in the car. Kinley testified that he didn’t see what happened because the trunk lid was up, but that he heard Moore tell Olinger to empty his pockets. Kinley testified that Moore directed Olinger to the corner by the dumpster and that he heard Olinger beg and plead to Moore about Olinger’s sick mother.

Kinley heard a gunshot, then Moore jumped into the car. According to Kinley, Moore laughed and asked him, “Did you see his dome get shot off?” After leaving the scene, Moore directed Kinley to take the credit cards out of Olinger’s wallet. Kinley said that Moore sounded upset because he had forgotten to ask Olinger for the personal identification number to his Jeanie card.

In a taped statement to police, Moore claimed that he asked Olinger for his wallet after directing him to the dumpster. When Olinger dropped the wallet and stepped forward, Moore said that he panicked and “accidentally pulled the trigger. But it was an accident․ I had a large amount of drinks an’ ․ some marijuana. An’ it truly truly was an accident.”

Moore and Kinley returned to Kinley’s house, where Moore told Holmes what had happened. Moore told Holmes that he planned to keep the Taurus and that Holmes could use his Fairmont any time he wanted. At Moore’s request Kinley took the Michigan plates off Olinger’s Taurus. Kinley then took one of the plates off Moore’s Fairmont and put it on the Taurus.

The next day, Moore and Kinley went out to get “some stuff.” Moore used Olinger’s credit card to purchase over $1,000 worth of clothing and jewelry at two J.C. Penney stores in the Cincinnati area. A sales clerk became suspicious and contacted Penney’s loss prevention officer. The officer observed two black males place their purchases in the trunk of a blue Ford Taurus with Ohio tags and drive away.

At approximately 5:30 p.m. on January 20, police apprehended Moore and Kinley as they waited for an order in the drive-through lane of a McDonald’s restaurant. Moore was placed in a holding cell at the Mt. Healthy police station. Officers confiscated several items of clothing from Moore which were believed to have been purchased with Olinger’s credit card. Shortly after midnight, Moore was advised of his Miranda rights and signed a waiver of rights form.

Moore was then taken to the downtown Cincinnati police station for questioning. Although the weather was cold and snowy, Moore was required to walk a short distance to and from the police car in his stocking feet, since his shoes had been confiscated as evidence. At approximately 6:30 a.m., while “crying a little bit” and sniffling, Moore admitted to police that he had robbed and kidnapped Olinger and that he had shot and killed Olinger. He claimed that the shooting was accidental.

Based on information supplied by Kinley, police located Olinger’s body. The chief deputy coroner determined that Olinger had died of a single gunshot wound to the head fired from a distance of between six and twenty-four inches away.

The grand jury indicted Moore on three counts of aggravated murder, one count of aggravated robbery, and one count of kidnapping. All counts carried a firearm specification. All three aggravated murder counts carried three death-penalty specifications: (1) aggravated murder to escape detection for kidnapping and/or aggravated robbery (R.C. 2929.04[A][3] ); (2) aggravated murder committed in connection with kidnapping where Moore either was the principal offender or committed the aggravated murder with prior calculation and design (R.C. 2929.04[A][7] ); and (3) aggravated murder committed in connection with aggravated robbery where Moore either was the principal offender or committed the aggravated murder with prior calculation and design (R.C. 2929.04[A][7] ).

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1624147.html