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Gregory Lott Ohio Death Row

Gregory Lott was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a brutal murder. According to court documents Gregory Lott would tie up the victim, 82 year old John McGrath, doused him with lamp oil and set him on fire. Gregory Lott would steal a number of possessions from the home including the victim’s car. The victim would be found alive however he would die from his injuries later on. Gregory Lott would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Gregory Lott 2021 Information

Number A198547

DOB 06/25/1961

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 09/01/1987

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Gregory Lott More News

The East Cleveland, Ohio, home of John McGrath (“McGrath”), a 79-year-old African-American man, was burglarized on three separate occasions in August 1983. On August 24, 1983, after the third break-in, East Cleveland police detectives, in consultation with McGrath, devised a plan to apprehend the person or persons that had burglarized his home. They placed a clean drinking glass upside down over a quarter on McGrath’s dining room table, anticipating that the burglar would lift the glass to remove the quarter, and in the process, leave his or her fingerprints. A fourth burglary occurred on September 7, 1983, after which McGrath again notified police. As predicted by the detectives, the burglar had moved the drinking glass and taken the quarter. The police analyzed the fingerprints obtained from the glass, but were unable to identify them at that time.

Three years later, on Saturday, July 12, 1986, McGrath drove his 1982 Ford Escort to a bank, where he cashed a $21 check. Patricia Hill, the head bank teller, stated that McGrath appeared to be in high spirits and in good health. On Monday morning, July 14, Deidra Coleman noticed McGrath’s Ford Escort parked in her Cleveland, Ohio, neighborhood. Behind the wheel of the car was a young, African-American male, who remained in the car for almost two hours. Her suspicions aroused, Coleman walked by the car, looked at the driver, noted the license plate number, and twice called the police from a pay phone a block away. She provided police with a description of the vehicle and its license plate number. The car left at approximately 11:20 a.m. and returned thirty minutes later, at which time Coleman observed the driver walk to the yard of her elderly neighbors, where Esther Turk was home alone. Again, Coleman notified the police. Shortly thereafter, she spotted the young man running from the Turks’ home, while carrying a brown bag beneath his arm. Coleman and Turk’s husband then entered the home and discovered a bruised Esther Turk shaking with her blouse undone. She had been assaulted and robbed.

Coleman, a trained artist, sketched for the police the driver she had seen in the Ford Escort parked outside the Turks’ house. She subsequently identified Lott from a photo array as the driver of the vehicle. Coleman again provided City of Cleveland police detectives with the vehicle’s license plate number, and they, in turn, used that information to identify McGrath as the owner. The detectives traveled to McGrath’s house and sought to speak with him about his car. Upon seeking entry into the home, they were unable to elicit a response from anyone in the house. The following day, the detectives asked East Cleveland police officers to check on the welfare of McGrath. When uniformed East Cleveland police officers were also unable to rouse McGrath, they entered the house through an unsecured kitchen door, whereupon they discovered a bloody, semi-conscious, and severely burned McGrath lying on the bedroom floor of his home. Apparently, during the course of a burglary of McGrath’s home, an unknown assailant had doused McGrath with heating lamp oil and set him on fire. McGrath suffered second-degree burns over twelve- to eighteen-percent of his body. The burns extended over his right back and side, lower and upper left side, both arms, and both knees. McGrath also suffered abrasions on his wrist, knee, and ankle, and a bruised left eye, which had apparently been caused by a blunt trauma.

At the time that police officers discovered McGrath, he was wearing a shirt that covered his burns, although the shirt itself was not scorched. Dried fluids (apparently from McGrath’s burning flesh) were present on the shirt and a strong odor emanated from McGrath’s burns. Police also found, within a foot of McGrath’s body, a frayed telephone cord, which police believe was used to bind McGrath’s wrists and ankles. On an adjacent cabinet, police discovered an uncapped one-quart bottle of flammable heating lamp oil. One-third of the oil remained in the bottle. Other evidence of a fire included charred draperies and a sheet.

When police officers interviewed McGrath, he informed them that he recognized his attacker. McGrath described him as a six-foot-tall, medium-build, very light-complexioned African-American man with long, straight hair, who, at the time of the attack, was wearing a light-colored shirt, white-gray tennis shoes, and a cap without a bill. One week after McGrath provided police detectives with this description, he was interviewed again at the hospital, at which time he told them that he believed that he and his assailant were patrons of the same barber shop. Police detectives showed McGrath a composite sketch drawn by Coleman of the man seen driving his car. McGrath examined the sketch, but was unable to identify the sketched individual as his attacker. Both interviews of McGrath were memorialized in police reports. On July 23, 1986, McGrath died of acute bilateral bronchopneumonia stemming from his injuries.

City of Cleveland police officers arrested Lott in Cleveland for McGrath’s murder on July 30, 1986. An investigation conducted by City of Cleveland police officers determined that an intruder had forcibly entered McGrath’s home by removing a rear basement window from its frame and prying loose a panel on the door leading from the basement to the kitchen. The house had obviously been ransacked. Kitchen and bedroom drawers had been opened and emptied. The mattress to McGrath’s bed had also been disturbed. The officers lifted a set of fingerprints from a church contribution envelope in McGrath’s home and a fingerprint from a dresser in the bedroom. Officers identified the fingerprints as Lott’s and also determined that Lott’s fingerprints matched those found on the glass that the officers had placed on McGrath’s dining room table three years earlier. In McGrath’s bedroom, the officers discovered a dusty shoeprint, which generally matched the pattern found on a pair of light-colored tennis shoes recovered by officers from the trunk of Lott’s car on the date of his arrest. A few days after the discovery of McGrath, police officers located McGrath’s car, which they believe Lott stole and drove for more than 28 hours prior to his apprehension.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1040782.html

Charles Lorraine Ohio Death Row

Charles Lorraine was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a robbery murder. According to court documents Charles Lorraine would break into the victims home and in the process of robbing it would murder 80-year-old Doris Montgomery and her 77-year-old husband Raymond. Charles Lorraine would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Charles Lorraine 2021 Information

Number A194013

DOB 10/12/1966

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 12/10/1986

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Charles Lorraine More News

On the evening of May 6, 1986, Petitioner went to the home of Doris and Raymond Montgomery, age 80 and 77, respectively. The Montgomerys had in the past hired Petitioner to do jobs around the house. Petitioner lured Raymond upstairs. Petitioner stabbed Raymond five times in the back with a butcher’s knife. Petitioner went back downstairs and stabbed Doris, who was bed-ridden, nine times. He then burglarized the home.

Petitioner proceeded to a bar and bought drinks with the stolen money. Petitioner bragged about killing two “old people.” He and a friend left the bar. They broke into a house and stole $40 and a car. They then went back to the Montgomerys’ house and stole money, jewelry, and a gun. Afterwards, Petitioner and his friend went to Denny’s for breakfast.

Petitioner confessed to the killings on videotape.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1376361.html

Carl Lindsey Ohio Death Row

Carl Lindsey was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a robbery and murder. According to court documents Carl Lindsey would shoot the victim, Donald Hoop, when he stepped out of his vehicle and would steal his wallet. Carl Lindsey was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Carl Lindsey did not pick the victim at random and it was later determined the victim’s wife Joy Hoop had asked Carl Lindsey to murder him.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Carl Lindsey 2021 Information

Number A350106

DOB 08/21/1962

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 09/17/1997

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Carl Lindsey More News

In the early morning hours of February 10, 1997, appellant, Carl Lindsey, was at Slammers Bar near Mt. Orab along with Kathy Kerr, Kenny Swinford, A.J. Cox, and Joy Hoop, one of the bar owners. According to the testimony at trial, Joy had wanted her husband, Donald Ray “Whitey” Hoop, dead, and that night appellant told her “he would do him in.” Joy then handed a small gun to appellant, and appellant left the bar. Kathy Kerr also decided to leave the bar at that point, but heard a banging noise. As she left she saw Whitey lying on the ground, covered with blood, and appellant standing by the door. According to investigators, Whitey had been shot once in the face while seated inside his vehicle. He apparently then left his vehicle and remained in the parking lot where he was shot again in the forehead. Upon seeing Whitey on the ground, Kerr immediately left for her home, which was only a few hundred feet away. Appellant followed her in his pickup truck, and she allowed him into her trailer to take a shower.

At approximately the same time that these events were occurring, Brown County Deputy Sheriff Buddy Moore was on patrol and passed Slammers Bar. He noticed and was suspicious of a pickup truck in the parking lot and followed it from the bar south to the Kerr residence. A couple minutes later, he received a police dispatch that a shooting had been reported at Slammers and headed back toward the bar. On the way, Moore noticed a car pass him at a high speed going south. When he arrived at Slammers, he found Whitey Hoop’s body lying in the parking lot. When backup arrived, Moore instructed a state trooper to go to Kerr’s trailer, look for the pickup, and make sure that no one left the premises. Moore also left for Kerr’s trailer.

When Moore arrived at the Kerr residence, he found appellant in the bathroom, soaking his clothes in a tub full of red-tinted water. He also found a box of .22 caliber ammunition on the sink. At that point, Moore took appellant into custody. Upon a search of the premises, police seized from the Kerr trailer appellant’s wallet, the ammunition, the clothing in the tub, and a .22 caliber Jennings semiautomatic pistol, which they discovered behind the bathroom door. They also found and seized Whitey’s wallet, which was in a wastebasket in the bathroom. When discovered, Whitey’s wallet was empty, although an acquaintance of Whitey’s testified that Whitey habitually carried about $1,000 with him. Police also found $1,257 in appellant’s wallet, although he had been laid off in late December 1996.

The crime laboratory tested the bloodstains on the items seized by police and found the stains on appellant’s jacket, jeans, boot, truck console, steering-wheel cover, driver’s seat, driver’s-side door, and door handle all to be consistent with Whitey’s blood. One of the stains on the Jennings .22 pistol was also consistent with Whitey’s blood.

Appellant was indicted on two counts of aggravated murder, one under R.C. 2903.01(A) (prior calculation and design) and one under R.C. 2903.01(B) (felony-murder), each count carrying a death specification for felony-murder (R.C. 2929.04[A][7]) and the first count also carrying a specification for murder for hire (R.C. 2929.03[A][2]). He was also indicted on one theft count and two aggravated robbery counts. At the close of the evidence, the trial court granted appellant’s Crim.R. 29 motion for judgment of acquittal on the murder-for-hire specification. A jury then found appellant guilty on all counts and all remaining specifications and, after a penalty hearing, recommended death. The trial judge merged the two aggravated murder counts and imposed the death sentence.

https://casetext.com/case/state-v-lindsey-60

Arron Lawson Ohio Death Row

Arron Lawson was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a quadruple murder. According to court documents Arron Lawson would murder Devin Holston, 8; his mother, Stacey Holston, 24; her mother and Lawson’s aunt, Tammie McGuire, 43; and Tammie’s husband, Donald McGuire, 50. Police believe the reason behind the quadruple murder was that Stacey Holston had recently broken up with him. Arron Lawson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Arron Lawson 2021 Information

Number A756426

DOB 04/30/1994

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 03/01/2019

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Arron Lawson More News

The three-judge panel has sentenced 24-year-old Arron Lawson to death for the 2017 murders of Stacey Holsten, her 8-year-old son Devin, Tammie McGuire, and Don McGuire.

Lawson faced a charge of aggravated murder for each of his victims.

On top of the 4 sentences of death he received on Thursday afternoon, Lawson was also sentenced to 11 years for attempted murder, 11 years for aggravated burglary, 12 months for abuse of a corpse, 11 years for kidnapping, 3 years for tampering with evidence, 18 months for theft of a motorvehicle, and 3 years for failure to comply with orders from law enforcement for a total of 59.5 years behind bars for those additional charges.

Lawson will also have to register as a child victim offender for the kidnapping charge.

13 News spoke to Lawson’s attorney, Kirk McVay, after the sentencing.

“It’s just hard to know someone’s life was placed in my hands and I was not able to succeed,” said McVay.

McVay tells 13 News that appeals in cases like Lawson’s are automatic.

Lawson’s case marks the first time anyone has been sentenced to death in the State of Ohio since the 1960s.

All three judges had to agree unanimously to sentence Lawson to death.

Arron Lawson Other News

Deliberations are currently underway in the murder trial of Arron Lawson after closing arguments were made Thursday morning.

It is the brutal crime that has shocked the moral conscience of this community and maybe… just maybe, the community will now be able to begin the healing process once the judges come back with a sentence for Arron Lawson.

The three judge panel overseeing Lawson’s case continues to deliberate on whether or not they will sentence Lawson to death for the aggravated murders of Stacey Jackson, Devin Holsten, Tammie McGuire and Don McGuire.

Deliberations started at 10:36 a.m. Thursday morning.

The prosecution hopes death is the sentence the three judge panel gives Lawson for each of the four counts of aggravated murder he has pleaded guilty, and has been found guilty, of committing.

This morning the defense argued that Lawson was remorseful when he turned himself in without any incident.

The defense said that Lawson confessed to everything he did very shortly after being taken into custody, and even gave investigators answers to questions they weren’t asking.

The defense argued, too, that Lawson did not have any support from his family or had any possible role models in his life.

The defense did say that Lawson’s mother loved him, but asked the court if love itself was enough.

On the other hand, Lawrence County Prosecutor Brigham Anderson talked about how Lawson did have a caring family, citing that Lawson’s mother, although mentally ill, sought out treatment for Lawson.

That treatment included help from mental health professionals.

Prosecutor Anderson argued that Lawson was not abandoned, but was instead supported all of his life by his father, his stepbrothers, and even his mother throughout the week at his trial.

“This was revenge for his rejection. Stacey rejected him in some way,” said Prosecutor Anderson. “Justice for Stacey is a sentence of death. Justice for Devin is a sentence of death. Justice for Tammie is a sentence of death. Justice for Don is a sentence of death,” Prosecutor Anderson said passionately.
Deliberations are still underway, but the three judges are expected to make a ruling today.

In order for Lawson to receive the death penalty, all three judges on the panel must agree unanimously on that sentence.

https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/arron-lawson-sentenced-to-death-for-quadruple-murder/

Edward Lang Ohio Death Row

Edward Lang was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a double murder. According to court documents Edward Lang called the two victims to set up a drug buy. When the two victims, Jaron Burditte and Marnell Cheek arrived they were shot and killed. Edward Lang would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Edward Lang 2021 Information

Number A532018

DOB 10/19/1987

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 07/27/2007

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Edward Lang More News

The state’s case revealed that at 9:36 p.m. on October 22, 2006, Canton police officer Jesse Butterworth was dispatched to a traffic accident with injuries on Sahara Avenue in Canton. At the scene, Butterworth observed that a Dodge Durango had crashed into the back of a parked car. He discovered that the two people inside the Durango had been shot in the back of the head. They were later identified as Jaron Burditte, the driver, and Marnell Cheek, the front-seat passenger.

Police investigators found a bag of cocaine in Burditte’s hand. Investigators examining the inside of the Durango recovered two shell casings in the backseat area and a spent bullet in the driver’s side door pocket. Additionally, two cell phones were found in the car, and a third cell phone was found in Burditte’s pocket.

One of the cell phones recovered from the Durango showed that calls had been received at 9:13 p.m. and 9:33 p.m., which was close to the time of the murders. Police learned that these calls had been made from a prepaid cell phone that was not registered in anyone’s name. Phone records for the cell phone showed that two calls had been made to the phone number of Teddy Seery on the afternoon and evening of the murders.

On October 24, 2006, Sergeants John Gabbart and Mark Kandel interviewed Seery. Following that interview, the police identified Lang as a suspect in the murders.

At trial, Seery testified that he and Lang were together almost every day during the summer of 2006. Lang called Seery on the evening of October 22, but Seery did not recall what they discussed. On the morning of October 23, Seery was informed by another friend that someone had been murdered on Sahara Avenue. Lang came to Seery’s house later that day.

During the visit, Seery asked Lang “what happened at Sahara,” because Lang stayed in that area. Lang told Seery that “he killed two people up there” that “[t]hey were going to rob.” Lang then described what had occurred: “[H]e had called the guy up and the guy came and he saw there was a girl in the car. The guy passed him up. He called him back. The guy came back around, and he got in the car.” Lang then said that he had gotten into the car and had “shot them * * * [t]wice.” However, Lang did not tell Seery whom he was with or explain why he had shot the two people.

The police obtained a warrant for Lang’s arrest. On the evening of October 24, 2006, the police stopped Lang as he was parking his girlfriend’s car at a local apartment. Lang gave police a false name when asked his identity, but police established his identity and arrested him. Police officers seized a 9 mm handgun and ammunition that had been wrapped inside a towel and were resting on the rear passenger floorboard of the car.

On October 25, 2006, Sergeants Gabbart and Kandel interviewed Lang. After waiving his Miranda rights, Lang told police that on October 22, Antonio Walker had come to his house and had told him “he had somebody that [they] could rob.” Lang agreed to join him. After Walker gave him Burditte’s phone number, Lang called Burditte and made arrangements to purchase a quarter-ounce of crack cocaine for $225. Burditte and Lang agreed to meet later that night “off of 30th Street and Sahara,” and Burditte said he would call Lang when he got close to that location.

Lang stated that he gave his gun to Walker before they left the house because Walker had told him, “[A]ll [Lang] had to do was just be in the car with him basically.” As they walked to the meeting location, Walker told Lang how the robbery was going to take place: Walker said they were going to get in the car and hold Burditte up, and he told Lang which direction to run afterwards.

After reaching the meeting location, Burditte called Lang and told him that he was “right around the corner.” After Burditte drove past them, Lang said that Walker had called Burditte on Lang’s cell phone and told him where they were. The car then pulled up in front of Lang and Walker. Lang then described what happened: “I walked like on the other side of the car [and] I get in the back seat behind the passenger and he got in the back seat behind the driver. * * * We jumped in the car and he put the gun up dude head [sic] and told dude that he wanted everything and like in a moment of seconds he fired two shots. And I jumped out the car.”

Lang stated that they went to Walker’s apartment after the shootings. Lang asked Walker why he shot the two people, and Walker said that “he felt as though dude was reachin’ for somethin’. * * * And he wasn’t * * * sure.” Lang stated that he vomited in a bag. Lang also called “[his] home boy E” to get the gun melted down and disposed of. In the meantime, Walker wiped down the gun. Walker also told Lang that they needed to get rid of the cell phone, and Lang gave it to him. Walker then dismantled the phone and went outside to throw it in the dumpster.

During the interview, Lang told police that he was surprised that Walker had shot the victims because the “plan was just to rob him.” Lang also said, “I did not wanna do it. * * * He wanted to do it. * * * I just went with him for, that was my gun I needed some money.”

On October 26, 2006, Walker turned himself in to the police after learning that the police were looking for him. Walker then talked to the police about the murders.

At trial, Walker testified that on the evening of October 22, 2006, he, Lang, and Tamia Horton, a girlfriend of Lang, were at Horton’s apartment. Lang had a gun out and said that he “needed to hit a lick” (commit a robbery) because he “needed some money.” Lang mentioned that they could rob “Clyde,” who was Jaron Burditte. Walker knew Burditte because they had been in the same halfway house together in 2004.

Walker agreed to help Lang rob Burditte because he was also “short on money.” Their plan was to arrange to buy drugs from Burditte and then rob him when he showed up for the sale. Lang then called Burditte and arranged to buy a quarter ounce of crack cocaine from him later that night.

Shortly thereafter, Lang and Walker walked to their meeting location on Sahara Avenue. Lang loaded his 9 mm handgun while they waited for Burditte to arrive.

When Burditte’s Durango drove past them, Lang called Burditte and told him where they were. Burditte then arrived at their location and stopped in front of Lang and Walker.

According to Walker, Lang got into the backseat on the driver’s side of the Durango. Walker did not get into the Durango, explaining, “It didn’t feel right to me.” Walker then heard two gunshots and saw Lang get out of the vehicle and start running. Walker saw the Durango “crash[ ] up into the yard.”

Lang and Walker separately ran to Horton’s apartment. Lang vomited in the bathroom. Walker asked whether Lang was all right, and Lang said, “[E]very time I do this, this same thing happens.” Walker testified that he never saw Lang’s handgun after they reached his apartment. He also denied throwing away Lang’s cell phone.

Michael Short, a criminalist with the Canton-Stark County crime lab, testified that none of the fingerprints collected matched Lang’s or Walker’s. Short also examined the handgun seized from Lang’s vehicle and the spent bullet recovered from the Durango. He testified that testing showed that the handgun had fired the spent bullet. Testing also showed that the two cartridge cases found in the Durango’s backseat had been ejected by this handgun.

Michele Foster, a criminalist with the Canton-Stark County crime lab, examined Lang’s clothing. Blood was found on Lang’s red T-shirt and pants, but DNA testing showed that it was Lang’s blood. No blood was found on Lang’s coat, knit hat, white T-shirt, or the athletic shoes that were taken from the car. Soiling was also noticed on Lang’s athletic shoes, jacket, and pants.

Foster also examined Walker’s clothing. She found no blood on the hooded sweatshirt or the athletic shoes that Walker said he was wearing on October 22. But tan-colored soiling with fragments of dried plant material was noticed on the exterior of both his shoes.

Foster conducted DNA testing of a swab taken from the trigger grips, slide, and magazine release on the 9 mm handgun. Foster detected low levels of DNA from at least two individuals on the swab. Foster testified, “Walker is not the major source of DNA that we detected from the swabbing of the pistol.” She also testified, “[W]e can say that Edward Lang cannot be excluded as a possible minor source to the DNA that we found on the weapon.” Because of the low level of DNA, Foster testified, “we can’t say to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty that this person is the source. In this particular case, the chance of finding the major DNA profile that we found on that pistol is 1 in 3,461,” which is to say that “1 of 3,461 people could possibly be included as a potential source of the DNA.”

Dr. P.S.S. Murthy, the Stark County coroner, conducted the autopsies on Cheek and Burditte. Murthy testified that Cheek was shot at close range above the left ear. The gunshot traveled “left to right, downwards, and slightly backwards” and exited behind Cheek’s right ear. Cheek’s toxicology report was negative for the presence of any drugs or alcohol.

Dr. Murthy testified that Burditte was shot in the back of the head. The trajectory of the shot was downward, and the bullet exited through the left side of the victim’s mouth. Dr. Murthy determined that the gunshot was a “near contact entrance wound” to the head. Burditte’s toxicology report was positive for benzoylecognine, which is the metabolite for cocaine, and THCA, which is marijuana. Dr. Murthy concluded that a gunshot wound to the head was the cause of death for both victims.

The defense presented no evidence during the guilt phase.

https://casetext.com/case/lang-v-bobby-1