ohio | My Crime Library

Caron Montgomery Ohio Death Row

Caron Montgomery was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a triple murder. According to court documents Carom Montgomery would stab to death 31-year-old Tia Hendricks, their 2-year-old son Tyron, and Hendrick’s 10-year-old daughter Tahlia. Caron Montgomery would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Caron Montgomery 2021 Information

Number A665402

DOB 05/22/1974

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 05/31/2012

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Caron Montgomery More News

For the fatal stabbings of three people, including his own son, Caron E. Montgomery was sentenced to death by a panel of three Franklin County judges this afternoon.

Montgomery, 37, could have been sentenced to life in prison. A unanimous decision was necessary to impose the death penalty.

Common Pleas Judges Guy Reece, Pat Sheeran and Richard S. Sheward began deliberating his fate yesterday afternoon after hearing closing arguments from both sides.

The judges ruled last week that Montgomery was subject to the death penalty because he purposely killed two or more people, including two victims under the age of 13, and killed one of the children to escape detection

Montgomery’s defense attorney told the judges that he should be spared the death sentence because his mother and the system failed him.

But prosecutors said the aggravating circumstances of the crimes far outweighed any mitigating factors.

Montgomery pleaded guilty last week to the stabbing deaths of his former girlfriend, Tia Hendricks; their 2-year-old son, Tyron Hendricks; and her 10-year-old daughter, Tahlia Hendricks. They were killed on Thanksgiving Day in 2010.

Members of Tia Hendricks’ family told The Dispatch that she had broken up with Montgomery, who was convicted of domestic violence against her in 2009, but allowed him to stay in her apartment on Broad Meadows Boulevard on the North Side. That’s where the bodies were found.

A death sentence was last imposed in Franklin County in 2003, when James T. Conway III received two for separate murders. He remains on Death Row.

https://www.dispatch.com/article/20120515/news/305159670

Gregory McKnight Ohio Death Row

Gregory McKnight was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for two murders. According to court documents Gregory McKnight would kidnap and murder Emily Murray and would later murder Gregory Julious. Gregory McKnight was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Gregory McKnight 2021 Information

Number A412247

DOB 11/14/1976

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 05/18/2001

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Gregory McKnight More News

During early 2000, Julious lived with his girlfriend, Dana Bostic, at her home in Chillicothe. At the time, appellant was dating Lisa Perkins, who was a friend of Bostic’s. Appellant became acquainted with Julious by visiting Perkins at Bostic’s home.

{¶ 3} On Friday, May 12, 2000, at around 4:00 p.m., Bostic returned home from work and found appellant, Julious, and her daughter in the kitchen. Julious was wearing only boxer shorts. Bostic then left the house with her daughter to pick up her son.

{¶ 4} When Bostic returned after approximately one hour, appellant and Julious were no longer at the house. Bostic testified, “The door was unlocked. There was candles still burning, * * * and it was like he just ran out for a minute and he was coming right back.” Moreover, Julious’s belongings, including his clothes, personal hygiene products, and his identification card, were still in the house.

{¶ 5} When Julious did not return home, Bostic called appellant on his pager. Later that night, appellant returned Bostic’s call and put Julious on the phone. Julious told Bostic that “he was in Columbus at McKnight’s friend’s house and they were getting ready to go to a OSU block party and he would be home.” Bostic described the conversation as “very unusual” because Julious “didn’t let [her] ask him anything else” and abruptly ended the conversation. Bostic never saw or talked to Julious again.

{¶ 6} In June 2000, appellant and his wife, Kathy McKnight, acquired a trailer in a rural area near Ray, Ohio. Appellant and Kathy moved their belongings into the trailer, but they did not move in. Instead, they moved to the home of Kathy’s mother, in Gambier.

{¶ 7} In late September or early October 2000, appellant was hired as a kitchen worker at the Pirate’s Cove restaurant in Gambier. Appellant was friendly with his co-workers, and they would sometimes give him rides to his Gambier home after work.

{¶ 8} Emily Murray, a Kenyon College student, was a part-time waitress at the Pirate’s Cove. Murray lived in a Kenyon College dormitory approximately 100 yards from the Pirate’s Cove, and she drove her mother’s Subaru Outback at Kenyon.

{¶ 9} On November 2, 2000, Murray quit her job and spent her last evening working at the Pirate’s Cove. Several college friends visited Murray at the Pirate’s Cove to help celebrate her last night at work, but her friends left before Murray finished work.

{¶ 10} Appellant also worked at the Pirate’s Cove on the evening of November 2. Time cards showed that Murray finished work at 3:07 a.m. and appellant finished work at 2:59 a.m. on November 3. Nathan Justice, the bartender at the Pirate’s Cove, saw Murray looking for her keys before 3:30 a.m. No one at the Pirate’s Cove recalls seeing Murray and appellant leave together.

{¶ 11} Murray never returned to sleep in her dormitory room, and she failed to appear at a party on the evening of November 3. This absence concerned Murray’s friends because Murray had not left a message regarding her whereabouts and they could not find Murray’s Subaru Outback on campus or in Gambier.

{¶ 12} After an unsuccessful search for Murray, her friends notified Murray’s family and Kenyon College Security. A search of Murray’s dormitory room by Murray’s friend, Abigail Williams, produced Murray’s wallet, which contained her Ohio and New York driver’s licenses, credit cards, and bank card.

{¶ 13} On Sunday evening, November 5, Williams talked to appellant about Murray’s disappearance. Appellant said that he had worked that night but “left well before she did * * * [and] that he was not there so he could see her leave.” According to Williams, appellant was “very curt” and “[they] didn’t get any information. He just kind of smirked” at them. A short time after Murray disappeared, appellant told Nate Justice that “[h]e felt that [Murray] was probably dead.”

{¶ 14} On December 9, 2000, Vinton County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Charles Boyer and Deputy Matt Kight went to appellant’s trailer to serve an unrelated indictment on him, but appellant was not there. Deputy Kight ran a license check on a vehicle on the property and learned that the Subaru Outback parked behind the trailer was associated with the disappearance of Emily Murray.

{¶ 15} After obtaining a search warrant, law enforcement entered appellant’s trailer and found bloodstains on the carpet near the front door. Police followed a trail of blood down the hallway and discovered Murray’s clothed body wrapped inside a carpet in the spare bedroom.

{¶ 16} During the search, Special Agent Gary Wilgus, a crime-scene investigator with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, found a copper bullet jacket near the bloodstained carpet in the living room. A bullet hole was found in the area of the bloodstained carpet, but investigators did not find the bullet that went through the floor. Additionally, police found five spent .357 shell casings inside a drawer in the living room, seven nine-millimeter bullets inside a drawer in the master bedroom, and a roll of bloodstained duct tape in the living room.

{¶ 17} Investigators searching the property found human bones and clothing in the cistern, the root cellar, and in a plastic bag. Police discovered that a fire had been started in the root cellar, and they recovered burned bones and pieces of clothing. The skeletal remains included most of the bones from a single human, but only six skull fragments were found. Dr. Nancy Tatarek, a forensic anthropologist, concluded that the remains were from an African-American male who was 20 to 25 years of age and six feet to six feet, six inches tall.

{¶ 18} The police identified the remains as those of Gregory Julious. Dr. Franklin Wright, a forensic dentist, positively matched the teeth and jaw bone found on appellant’s property with Julious’s dental records. Bostic also identified the remains of boxer shorts found in the cistern as those Julious was wearing the day he disappeared. Kim Zimmerman, appellant’s brother-in-law, had given police a bloodstained backpack that he had taken from the trailer’s living-room closet.

{¶ 19} Police searched the vehicle that appellant was driving when Julious disappeared, and they discovered bloodstains on the carpet underneath the rear seat. Subsequent DNA analysis showed that the “DNA from the * * * carpet [was] consistent with the DNA profile from Gregory L. Julious.” According to Diane Larson, a DNA serology analyst, the “chance of finding the same DNA profile in the population is * * * approximately 1 in 50 trillion people for the Caucasian population, one in 177 trillion in the African-American population, and 1 in 51 trillion in the Hispanic population.”

{¶ 20} Inside appellant’s Gambier home, police found an empty box of Winchester .357 magnum cartridges underneath the bed in the master bedroom, two .30 caliber bullets in the master-bedroom closet, and four nine-millimeter bullets in the basement. Police also learned that appellant had purchased three handguns from two gun shops before the murders: a Jennings nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistol purchased on February 17, 1999, an Intratec nine-millimeter pistol purchased on April 24, 1999, and a Jennings .380 caliber semiautomatic pistol bought on May 24, 2000.

{¶ 21} Dr. Dorothy Dean, Deputy Coroner for Franklin County, found that Murray had died from a single “gunshot wound to the head.” Murray was shot with a high-powered weapon, and the gun was “very, very close or touching her skin” when fired.

{¶ 22} Dr. Tatarek found that the condition of the skull fragments of Julious were “consistent with an injury by gunshot.” She also found evidence of trauma to the vertebra “caused by some sort of sharp object penetrating the person’s neck and cutting into the bone.” Moreover, trauma to two hand bones was “consistent [with] defense wounds.” Dr. Tatarek also found trauma around joints “consistent with dismemberment of a person.” The condition of the skeletal remains placed the date of death within a three- to six-month time frame that included May 12, 2000.

{¶ 23} Diane Larson concluded that the DNA profile from the bullet jacket found in appellant’s trailer was consistent with Murray’s DNA profile. The odds that the DNA from the bullet jacket was from someone other than Murray were one in 646 billion for the Caucasian population. Larson also found that the bloodstains on the backpack and duct tape matched Julious’s DNA profile. The odds that the DNA from bloodstains on the backpack was from someone other than Julious were one in 64 quadrillion for the African-American population.

{¶ 24} Heather Zollman, a firearms expert, compared a bullet taken from a tree behind the trailer and the bullet jacket from inside the house and concluded that they were “fired [from] the same firearm.” Zollman described each as a “Remington brand 180 gram .357 magnum semi-jacketed hollow-point bullet.” She could not determine the caliber of the bullet removed from Murray’s body. Nevertheless, Zollman concluded that the lead was “consistent with having come from the bullet.” Gunpowder on the surface of the bullet fragment was also “the same type of style of flattened ball powder that is loaded by Remington in these .357 magnum cartridges.”

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1100530.html

Joseph McAlpin Ohio Death Row

Joseph McAlpin was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a robbery and murder. According to court documents Joseph McAlpin would break into a car lot and execute the owners, Michael Kuznik and Trina Tomola. Joseph McAlpin would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Joseph McAlpin 2021 Information

Number A762464

DOB 05/02/1987

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 05/28/2019

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Joseph McAlpin More News

A Cleveland man found guilty of murdering a Euclid couple at their car dealership was sentenced to death on May 21.

Joseph McAlpin, 32, was previously found guilty on charges that included aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, kidnapping, grand theft and cruelty to animals. On May 16, a Cuyahoga County jury recommended the death penalty for McAlpin.

Michael Kuznik, 50, and Trina Tomola, 46, were found dead on April 14, 2017, at the Mr. Cars dealership that they owned in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood.

Prosecutors said that McAlpin and two others drove to Mr. Cars to steal cars with the intention of selling them afterward. Allegedly, the two others waited outside as McAlpin entered the dealership.

McAlpin shot Kuznik twice in the head near the front of the dealership showroom, prosecutors said. He shot Tomola once in the head in an office in the back of the building. The couple’s dog, Axel, was also shot and killed.

Their daughter spoke with Tomola on the phone minutes before the shooting occurred, according to prosecutors. After several hours went by with no communication from either parent, their son went to the dealership to check on them. The 19-year-old then found his stepfather unresponsive on the floor with a gunshot wound and called 911.

According to the prosecutor’s office, investigators were able to connect McAlpin to the location of the 726 E. 185th Street dealership. His DNA was found on one victim’s back pocket, a computer modem near one victim’s body, and on the steering wheel and inside of the driver’s side door of the stolen BMW.

Prosecutors also said records showed McAlpin and his co-defendants’ cell phones pinged off towers and wireless internet routers in the area at the time of the murders.

McAlpin had represented himself during trial. Judge Brian Corrigan sentenced McAlpin to death for the two aggravated murders.

“This horrific crime has forever broken the hearts of the family and friends of Michael and Trina Kuznik,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley stated in a press release. “12 citizens of this county and now a judge have determined the death sentence was the only appropriate punishment. Given the facts and circumstance of this case, I wholeheartedly agree.”

According to a previous News-Herald report, alleged accomplices Jerome Diggs Jr., 24, and Andrew Keener, 25, faced multiple charges, including multiple counts of aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary.

Keener pleaded Feb. 25 to first-degree felony involuntary manslaughter and fourth-degree felony grand theft.

Diggs has a pretrial hearing scheduled for June 3.

https://www.news-herald.com/news/joseph-mcalpin-receives-death-penalty-in-murder-of-euclid-couple/article_cb375fe8-7bf3-11e9-be46-efada3ab0ab5.html

Charles Maxwell Ohio Death Row

Charles Maxwell was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the murder of an ex girlfriend. According to court documents Charles Maxwell would murder his ex girlfriend for testifying against him at a domestic violence case. Charles Maxwell would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Charles Maxwell 2021 Information

Number A523572

DOB 09/12/1966

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 03/29/2007

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Charles Maxwell More News

Evidence introduced at trial showed that McCorkle and Maxwell had a long-term relationship that began in 1999, living together on different occasions over the next few years. They had one child, C.M., nearly four years old. Nichole also had two other children, D.C. and D.K. In August 2005, she purchased a single-family home at 1046 East 146th Street in Cleveland and lived there with her father and two of the children. Maxwell had a key to the side door of the house and kept some clothes there.

The underlying assault

{¶ 3} The prosecution introduced evidence showing that on October 6, 2005, Nichole went to the hospital and received stitches for head injuries after Maxwell struck her. Police came to the hospital and took Nichole’s report about the incident. On the same date, Maxwell told John Gregg, a friend and coworker, that he had pistol-whipped Nichole. On October 13, 2005, she obtained a temporary protection order against Maxwell.

{¶ 4} Afterward, prosecutors presented felonious-assault charges against Maxwell to the grand jury. Nichole was subpoenaed to testify before it on November 23, 2005.

{¶ 5} Maxwell told Gregg that he was concerned about receiving prison time for felonious assault. Maxwell knew about the temporary protection order and that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. He had also learned that Nichole was going to testify against him at the grand jury.

{¶ 6} At Maxwell’s behest, Gregg contacted Nichole about her grand jury testimony in an effort to reduce the charges from felonious assault to a lesser offense. Gregg asked Nichole to “stick to the story that it was a simple domestic; she pushed him, he pushed her, she slipped and hit her head on the stove.”

A. Nichole’s grand jury testimony

{¶ 7} Following Nichole’s testimony on November 23, 2005, the grand jury indicted Maxwell for felonious assault, abduction, and domestic violence. Brian Mooney, an assistant prosecutor for Cuyahoga County, informed Nichole that day that the grand jury had voted to indict and what the charges were. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the indictment was not signed by the grand jury foreman and filed with the clerk of court until November 28, 2005.

{¶ 8} The evening of the grand jury’s decision, Maxwell called Gregg and said that he had been trying to talk to Nichole about her grand jury testimony but had been unable to contact her. Maxwell then called Nichole while Gregg remained on the line and heard their conversation. Maxwell asked Nichole what happened in court that day. Nichole told him, “I told the truth. I had to tell the truth.” According to Gregg, Maxwell was very upset after the phone call and said that “the bitch was going to make him kill her.” Maxwell also asked Gregg where he could get a gun.

B. The Events of November 26 and 27, 2005

{¶ 9} The prosecution presented evidence that on the evening of November 26, 2005, Nichole and Willie Hutchinson met at a bar. Lauretta Kenney, Nichole’s sister, had introduced Hutchinson to Nichole after the October 6 incident. Nichole and Hutchinson arrived at the bar in separate cars and had a few drinks. When they departed, although Nichole told Hutchinson that she would call him when she got home, she did not. But Hutchinson called Nichole, and a man answered the phone. Hutchinson then called Lauretta and told her to check on Nichole.

{¶ 10} Near 2:30 a.m. on November 27, Lauretta called Nichole, and Maxwell answered the phone. Maxwell immediately gave the phone to Nichole. Lauretta asked Nichole why Maxwell was there and told her that he needed to leave. According to Lauretta, Nichole said that “she was confused and she didn’t know what was going on.”

{¶ 11} Lauretta then drove to Nichole’s home and arrived around 2:40 a.m. but did not see Maxwell’s car on the street or in the driveway. Lauretta called Nichole, saying she was outside. Nichole “mumbled something” and then hung up. Lauretta went onto the porch, and Nichole and Maxwell were standing next to each other when Lauretta opened the screen door.

{¶ 12} Lauretta told Maxwell that he was not supposed to be there and needed to leave. Maxwell said that he was just talking to Nichole. Lauretta testified, “I told him, there’s no talking, that you needed to leave.” He then called Lauretta “a bitch” and said, “[I]f anybody’s leaving it’s going to be you.” Maxwell then stepped back and pulled a gun from his pants. Nichole screamed, “[O]h my God, Lauretta, he got a gun, run.” Lauretta then jumped off the porch and started running. Lauretta heard two gunshots as she ran across the street and heard a third gunshot after she crossed the street. Lauretta then saw Maxwell kneeling down by Nichole.

{¶ 13} C.M., a day short of four years old, was standing near Maxwell and Nichole when Lauretta came to the door. Later, when asked what she had seen, C.M. testified, “He shoot my mommy.”

{¶ 14} Maxwell ran from the house after shooting Nichole and fled down the street. Lauretta followed him for a short distance before he disappeared. Shortly afterwards, police officers and emergency medical personnel arrived on the scene. Nichole was taken to the hospital, where she died from her injuries.

{¶ 15} On the morning of November 27, Michelle Kenney, Nichole’s other sister, called Gregg and told him that Maxwell had killed Nichole. Gregg said that he then called Maxwell and asked him if he had killed Nichole. Maxwell admitted killing her and recounted what happened. He said he had followed Nichole from her home to the bar. She went into the bar, and Maxwell waited outside in his car. He then went inside and saw Nichole and another man sitting in the back of the bar “making out.” Maxwell then returned to his car and waited. After they left the bar, he followed Nichole and the man as they drove in separate cars to Nichole’s house. Nichole kissed the man, went into her house, and the man drove away.

{¶ 16} Gregg also testified that Maxwell told him that he called Nichole after the other man drove away and asked if he could come over. Nichole said he could, and Maxwell went to her house. Maxwell answered the phone at Nichole’s house, including repeated calls from a man who asked to speak to Nichole. He also answered a call from Lauretta. Maxwell told Gregg that “they started arguing and then he confronted her about that night.” Lauretta then came to the front door, and Maxwell “opened the door[,] pointed the gun and fired but she had ran.” Then, Maxwell told Gregg, “he just turned around, shot Nichole and she fell down and * * * she moved and then he shot her again.”

C. The Police Investigation

{¶ 17} Police investigators found two .25 caliber shell casings inside the house. Investigators looked inside and outside the house for a third shell casing, which they never found. Investigators also did not find any bullet holes inside or outside the house.

{¶ 18} Dr. David Dolinak, a medical examiner with the Cuyahoga County coroner’s office, conducted Nichole’s autopsy. Nichole suffered two gunshot wounds to the head. One gunshot in the middle of the right eyebrow broke the bones of the eye socket. The bullet did not enter the brain but lodged in the sinuses on the right side of the nose. The other gunshot went through the left side of the head into the right side of the brain. Dr. Dolinak concluded that Nichole died from gunshot wounds of the head and that the death was a homicide.

{¶ 19} Detective James Ealey, a firearms examiner with the Cleveland Police Department, examined the two bullets recovered during the autopsy. Ealey testified that they had been fired from the same weapon. His written report stated that the bullets were “consistent with 25 auto type ammunition.”

{¶ 20} The police sought to locate and arrest Maxwell following Nichole’s death. On December 16, 2005, FBI Special Agent Robert Riddlebarger and other members of the Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Fugitive/Gang Task Force went to a Cleveland home to arrest him. After entering the home, they found Maxwell hiding in a crawl space behind a bed in a second-floor bedroom. As he was being handcuffed, Maxwell was asked whether he was armed or whether there were any weapons nearby. He replied, “I do not have a gun anymore.” A few seconds later, Maxwell blurted out that he had gotten rid of the gun that he had.

{¶ 21} The defense presented no witnesses during the guilt phase of the trial.

II. Case history

{¶ 22} Maxwell was indicted on two counts of aggravated murder. Count One charged him with the aggravated murder of Nichole with prior calculation and design. Count Two charged him with the aggravated murder of Nichole while committing kidnapping and/or aggravated burglary. Both counts contained death-penalty specifications for a course of conduct involving multiple murders or attempted murders, R.C. 2929.04(A)(5), murder while committing kidnapping or aggravated burglary, R.C. 2929.04(A)(7), murder in retaliation for testimony in a criminal proceeding, R.C. 2929.04(A)(8), and murder to escape accounting for a crime, R.C. 2929.04(A)(3).

{¶ 23} Maxwell was also charged with six additional counts: Count Three—kidnapping, Counts Four and Five—aggravated burglary, Count Six—the attempted murder of Lauretta Kenney, Count Seven—retaliation against Nichole because she filed criminal charges against him, and Count Eight—having a weapon while under disability. Counts One through Seven each contained a firearm specification.

{¶ 24} Maxwell pled not guilty to all charges and specifications. The matter proceeded to a jury trial on the first seven counts, while Maxwell waived a jury trial on Count Eight. At the close of the state’s case, defense counsel filed a Crim.R. 29 motion to dismiss the charges. The trial court granted the motion to dismiss Counts Two through Five and the felony-murder death-penalty specification but denied the motion to dismiss the other charges. The jury found Maxwell guilty of Counts One and Seven, the retaliation and murder-to-escape-accounting specifications, and two firearm specifications. He was found not guilty of Count Six and the course-of-conduct specification. Separately, the trial court found Maxwell guilty of having a weapon while under a disability.

{¶ 25} Prior to sentencing, the R.C. 2929.04(A)(3) specification was merged into the R.C. 2929.04(A)(8) specification. Following the presentation of evidence in the penalty phase of the trial, the jury recommended that Maxwell be sentenced to death. The trial court accepted the jury’s recommendation, and Maxwell was sentenced to death on Count One. He was also sentenced to five years in prison for the independent count of retaliation, three years on the firearm specification, and five years for having a weapon under a disability.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1661014.html

David Martin Ohio Death Row

David Martin was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a robbery murder. According to court documents David Martin went over to the victims home and after smoking marijuana with the people inside of the home Martin would pull out a gun and shoot and kill the victim Jeremy Cole. David Martin was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

David Martin 2021 Information

Number A661315

DOB 09/14/1984

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 09/24/2014

Institution Ohio State Penitentiary

Status INCARCERATED

David Martin More News

The Ohio Supreme Court has affirmed the death sentence of a Warren man convicted of kidnapping, robbing, and killing an acquaintance in 2012.

The Supreme Court voted unanimously to affirm David Martin’s convictions for the murder of Jeremy Cole and the attempted murder of Melissa “Missy” Putnam at Putnam’s home. The Court ruled 6-1 to uphold Martin’s death sentence, with Justice William M. O’Neill stating his long-standing opposition to the death penalty.

Martin was arrested within weeks of the murder when federal marshals located him in Summit County. During his transport back to Trumbull County, he confessed to the crimes. In his appeal, he argued that his incriminating statements to the marshals and to a police should have been suppressed. The Court rejected the challenges to the admission of his statements, and other claims he raised.

Writing for the Court, Justice Judith L. French noted that the death sentence has been imposed in cases similar to Martin’s. The opinion stated the Court has approved death sentences in cases combining a robbery-murder specification with a specification involving one murder and one attempted murder.

Putnam, a small-scale marijuana dealer, had known Martin for a few months when she sold him some marijuana at her house. She invited him over to smoke marijuana with her the next day. That day she also asked her friend Jeremy Cole to pick her up and drive her to places to apply for jobs. Cole and Putnam returned to her home in the late morning before Martin arrived. The three smoked marijuana together, and Putnam recognized that Martin was carrying the same gun he possessed the day before.

At some point, Martin pointed his gun at Cole and ordered him and Putnam to sit on the couch. Putnam testified that Martin took offense to something Cole said and ordered him to lie face down on the floor with his hands behind his back. Martin ordered Putnam to tie Cole’s hands, and told Putnam to tie her own hands. Martin dumped the contents of Putnam’s purse and took her cell phone and about $100, and took her marijuana that was on a table.

Martin made Cole and Putnam go to Putnam’s bedroom and lie on the bed. He went through Cole’s pockets and took his cell phone, and tried to locate his car keys. Cole said his girlfriend had the car keys and the car and would be back in an hour. Putnam knew that to be a lie and told Martin she would help him locate Cole’s car keys, and the two left her bedroom.

Martin then placed Putnam in her daughter’s bedroom, and she heard a struggle her bedroom. She heard Cole tell her, “Get out Missy… He’s about to shoot me.” She then heard a shot. Putnam then saw Martin standing over her and begged him not to shoot her in the face. Martin shot her, and the bullet passed through her hand and into her neck.

Martin told authorities he left the house on foot and stopped underneath a bridge where he removed his wristwatch and clothes, except for a pair of shorts, and burned them. He returned to his home and showered.

Putnam regained consciousness, climbed out a window to flee the home, and called 9-1-1. Responding police found Cole face down and alive, but barely breathing with his hands tied behind his back with another cord that was different than the one Martin ordered Putnam to place on Cole. Cole was taken to Trumbull Memorial Hospital where he died.

The Trumbull County coroner determined Cole had been shot once between the eyes from a distance of three to eight inches.

Putnam identified Martin, and Warren Police Detective Wayne Mackey obtained a warrant for Martin’s arrest. About three weeks after the shooting, members of the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force arrested Martin in Tallmadge in Summit County and recovered a loaded handgun. Deputy U.S. Marshals William Boldin and Anne Murphy, task force members, transported Martin to the Warren Police station, first stopping at the Summit County jail in Akron.

While being transported from Tallmadge to Akron, Martin remarked: “I did what I had to do,” and “I can accept the needle. I did what I did, but I had to.” He made further statements indicating he committed the crime. On the way from Akron to Warren, Martin asked the marshals if they would like to see where he burned his clothes, and when Boldin said he would, Martin directed them to the bridge, where they found a pile of burned material that included a partially melted watchband.

The marshals drove Martin to the Warren police station where Mackey advised him of his Miranda rights and questioned him. He admitted to the shooting, but denied robbing Putnam and Cole, and claimed he drew his gun only after they went in another room and conspired to harm him. He also admitted the gun recovered during his arrest was the one used to shoot Cole and Putnam.

http://www.courtnewsohio.gov/cases/2017/SCO/0913/141922.asp#.YF-tcijYrrc