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Donald Ketterer Ohio Death Row

Donald Ketterer was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the robbery and murder of an elderly man. According to court documents Donald Ketterer stabbed to death Lawrence Sanders before robbing his home and stealing his car. Donald Ketterer was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Donald Ketterer 2021 Information

Number A465959

DOB 05/31/1949

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 02/12/2004

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Donald Ketterer More News

In the late afternoon on February 24, 2003, defendant-appellant, 53-year-old Donald Ketterer, beat and stabbed 85-year-old Lawrence Sanders to death in Hamilton, Ohio. Ketterer then stole money and other property and drove Sanders’s car away. Ketterer pleaded guilty to burglary, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, grand theft of a motor vehicle, and aggravated murder and was sentenced to death.

{¶ 2} According to his confession, Ketterer went to Sanders’s home on Shuler Avenue in Hamilton, Ohio on February 24, 2003, to borrow $200 so he could pay a court fine. Ketterer claimed that Sanders “swore up and down to [him] that he did not have the money” and asked Ketterer to leave. Ketterer felt that Sanders “was being very disrespectful,” and he hit Sanders in the head with a skillet three times. Ketterer remembered thinking, “[I]f I just knocked him out, he would know who did it, so I thought I should stab him,” which Ketterer did. Ketterer further stated that after Sanders “quit moving,” Ketterer took $60 to $70 out of Sanders’s wallet, searched the house for more money, and found loose and rolled coins. Then he drove away in Sanders’s 1995 Pontiac Grand Am.

{¶ 3} Mary Gabbard, a friend of Ketterer’s, said that Ketterer was at her East Avenue residence on the evening of February 24, wearing yellow gloves that appeared to have blood on them. When Gabbard asked about the blood, Ketterer said that he had been in a fight. According to Gabbard, latex gloves that police found at her residence were similar to those that Ketterer had worn on February 24. A forensic scientist concluded that DNA extracted from blood on these gloves contained a mixture of DNA that belonged to Sanders and Ketterer.

{¶ 4} Gabbard also reported that around 11:30 p.m. on February 24, Ketterer again stopped by her residence. Both Gabbard and Ketterer used drugs, often together, and Gabbard had supplied drugs to Ketterer. At that time, Ketterer told Gabbard that “he had some stuff that he had stolen,” including “crosses, rosaries, costume jewelry” and “a couple hundred dollars worth of change.” Ketterer wanted “to trade [these items] for crack cocaine.” Ketterer also explained that “he wanted to go back over there [to Shuler Avenue] because he had [by mistake] * * * gotten the woman’s stuff and he wanted the man’s stuff.” The evening before, Gabbard had left her home and had bought cocaine for Ketterer, using $40 that he had given her. When Gabbard woke up around 5:30 a.m. on February 25, Ketterer left her residence. In his confession, Ketterer admitted that at around 4:00 p.m. on February 25, he had returned to Sanders’s house for an hour and a half and had stolen silverware and other items.

{¶ 5} Around 7:00 p.m. on February 25, Hamilton police officer Christy Collins impounded Sanders’s abandoned 1995 Pontiac Grand Am, which had struck a garage near East Avenue, where Gabbard lived. After Officer Collins traced the car, she went to Sanders’s home, but got no response. At about that same time, Lisa Lawson, a bartender, saw Ketterer at Cindy’s Pub. When Ketterer got up to leave, he dropped a bag, and “stuff [was] laying all over the floor,” including coins. Lawson helped Ketterer put the items into another bag, and Ketterer told her, “I’ve got to get out of here. I have heat on me.” A cab driver then drove Ketterer over to East Avenue.

{¶ 6} Shortly after 7:00 p.m. that same evening, police officers seeking to interview Ketterer about an unrelated matter found him outside Gabbard’s home and asked him to voluntarily come to the station. Ketterer was carrying a plastic bag, which he brought to the station. Around 8:30 p.m., police advised Ketterer of his Miranda rights, which he waived. Ketterer consented in writing to a search of his person and the plastic bag he carried. Police found a large quantity of loose change and rolled coins in Ketterer’s possession, as well as papers that mentioned Sanders.

{¶ 7} That evening, police went to Sanders’s home and discovered his mutilated body inside. The contents of drawers had been dumped on the floor, and Sanders’s pants pockets were inside out. The back of Sanders’s wristwatch case was loose, and his watch had stopped at 5:18 or 5:20. A broken skillet was found in the kitchen. In the alley behind Sanders’s house, police found silverware that Ketterer had dropped.

{¶ 8} Dr. James Swinehart, a pathologist, concluded after an autopsy that Sanders had died of “multiple traumatic injuries,” including “a severe craniocerebral injury with extensive skull fractures,” nine distinct “stab wounds with penetration * * * of the left lung,” and “multiple bilateral rib fractures.” In addition, “two forks, a knife, and a pair of scissors” had been stuck in Sanders’s face. Dr. Swinehart also discovered multiple defensive wounds on Sanders’s hands and arms.

{¶ 9} Around 12:30 a.m., on February 26, after Sanders’s body had been found, police returned to the police station. Police again advised Ketterer of his Miranda rights, which he waived. Ketterer initially denied recollection of Sanders’s death. But during a later interview that morning, Ketterer orally confessed and then signed a written confession. At 5:05 a.m., Ketterer signed another statement admitting that he killed Sanders.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1203021.html

Phillip Jones Ohio Death Row

Phillip Jones was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a sexual assault and murder. According to court documents Phillip Jones would sexually assault and murder Susan Marie Christian-Yates in Mount Peace Cemetery. Phillip Jones was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Phillip Jones 2021 Information

Number A542310

DOB 05/02/1970

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 02/05/2008

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Phillip Jones More News

A 37-year-old Akron man faces the death penalty. A jury, Monday evening, convicted Phillip L. Jones, of Hudson Avenue in Akron, of aggravated murder, murder and two counts of rape.

Jones raped and killed Susan Marie Christian-Yates, 33, in Mount Peace Cemetery on April 23.

A jogger found her body in front of a gravestone with a plastic cross over her right eye. She had bruises over her entire body and injuries to her neck due to strangulation.

Prosecutors said during the trial that Jones had became an ordained minister while in prison for a prior rape and he had given an identical cross to his wife in 2006.

The jury will return to Summit County Common Pleas Court on Jan. 10 to decide sentencing. Jurors will weigh aggravating and mitigating evidence for and against Jones and decide whether he should get death, life in prison without parole, or be eligible for parole after 20, 25, or 30 years.

The judge will impose the sentence for rape; each count carries three to ten years. He also faces another 10 years for being a repeat violent offender. Jones’ criminal history includes convictions for kidnapping, assault and multiple rapes. Christian Yates had a conviction for prostitution.

Akron police said that Jones used to work at the cemetery and has family buried there.

https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2007/12/akron_man_faces_death_for_brut.html

Odraye Jones Ohio Death Row

Odraye Jones was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the murder of a police officer. According to court documents Odraye Jones was being chased by Ashtabula police officer William Glover, when he puled out a gun and fired at the officer striking him. Odraye Jones would go over to the officer and kick him in the chest. Odraye Jones would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Odraye Jones 2021 Information

Number A358112

DOB 09/21/1976

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 06/10/1998

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Odraye Jones More News

Officer William D. Glover, Jr., responded to the dispatcher’s call. Officer Glover found appellant with a friend, Anthony Gene Barksdale, and Jimmie Lee Ruth walking together on West 43rd Street. Officer Glover followed the three men to the home of one of their friends, Flo Chapman. Barksdale knocked on the door of the Chapman home while Ruth and appellant stood behind him on the porch. Officer Glover approached the Chapman home, got out of his car, and beckoned to appellant. Ruth testified that Officer Glover told appellant, “[C]ome on, you know why I’m here. I don’t want no problem. I’m just doing my job.” Appellant jumped off the side of the porch and began running down the side of the Chapman home. Officer Glover pursued him. Not long after the pursuit commenced, appellant turned around, pulled a .38 caliber revolver from his pocket, and began firing shots at Officer Glover.

After firing the first shot, appellant began to approach Officer Glover, firing several more shots. Officer Glover fell to the ground. Appellant turned and fled. He ran to a nearby fence and began to climb through a hole in it. Appellant then stopped, turned around, and ran back to where Officer Glover lay. Appellant kicked Officer Glover in the chest. The kick was done with such force that it left a large bruise on Officer Glover’s chest that was visible to the paramedics who later treated Officer Glover at the scene. After kicking Officer Glover, appellant fled the scene.

As Officer Glover was pursuing appellant, another Ashtabula City Police Officer, Robert Stell, was en route in his patrol car. Officer Stell located appellant several blocks away from the scene of the shooting, still running. Officer Stell got out of his car and ordered appellant to stop. Appellant ignored the command and continued running. Officer Stell pursued appellant on foot. Appellant led Officer Stell into a nearby apartment complex. He stopped at the door of an apartment and began attempting to force his way inside. While appellant managed to squeeze part of his body through the door, the occupant of the apartment prevented appellant from fully entering. As appellant was struggling to enter the apartment, Officer Stell began to approach appellant. Officer Stell drew his weapon and ordered appellant to the ground. Appellant did not immediately respond. Appellant threw his revolver behind him. The gun landed in some nearby shrubbery. Officer Stell again ordered appellant to the ground and, this time, appellant complied. Officer Stell held appellant at gunpoint until assistance arrived. Officers recovered the weapon and appellant was placed under arrest. This gun was later matched to fired cartridge casings recovered at the scene of the shooting, live cartridges found on appellant at the time of his arrest, and bullets taken from Officer Glover’s body. All of the ammunition was hollow point. This type of ammunition is designed to open up on impact, causing larger wounds.

Officer Glover had sustained gunshot wounds to the top of his head and to the area just below his right eye. He also sustained a bullet wound to his right shoulder. The gunshot wound to the top of Officer Glover’s head and the wound to his face were both fired from a distance of less than one foot. The suddenness of appellant’s attack had apparently caught Officer Glover by surprise. Officer Glover’s duty weapon was found in Officer Glover’s holster. The holster’s strap was snapped securely shut.

Paramedics transported Officer Glover to Ashtabula County Medical Center for emergency treatment. After Officer Glover’s condition had been stabilized, he was life-flighted to Cleveland’s Metro-Health Hospital. X-rays and CT scans revealed substantial damage to Officer Glover’s brain. Officer Glover had severe cerebral swelling and profuse bleeding from his nose and mouth. Neurological assessments revealed minimal brain stem function. Officer Glover died from his gunshot wounds the following morning, November 18, 1997.

The state charged appellant with the aggravated murder of Officer Glover with prior calculation and design. This charge carried with it four specifications. Under the first specification, appellant was charged with killing Officer Glover for the purpose of escaping apprehension for his earlier aggravated robbery offense (R.C. 2929.04[A][3] ). The second and third specifications charged appellant with knowingly and purposefully causing the death of a law enforcement officer (R.C. 2929.04[A][6] ). The fourth specification charged appellant with using a firearm in the killing of Officer Glover (R.C. 2941.145).

Appellant was found guilty as charged in a jury trial, and the case proceeded to the penalty phase. The trial court merged the second and third death penalty specifications and instructed the jury to consider only the first and second.¹ Following a hearing, the jury recommended that appellant be sentenced to death. The trial court concurred. In addition to imposing the sentence of death, the trial court sentenced the defendant to a three-year mandatory term of imprisonment on the firearm specification.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1125044.html

Elwood Jones Ohio Death Row

Elwood Jones was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the murder of a woman. According to court documents Elwood Jones would beat to death Rhoda Nathan at a hotel she was staying at. Elwood Jones would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Elwood Jones 2021 Information

Number A339441

DOB 07/25/1952

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 01/10/1997

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Elwood Jones More News

During the early afternoon of Friday, September 2, 1994, Elaine Schub and Joe Kaplan checked in as guests at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Blue Ash. Schub was in town to see her grandson’s bar mitzvah, which was to be held the following day. Schub’s best friend, Rhoda Nathan, flew in from New Jersey later that afternoon also to attend the event on Saturday. Schub and Nathan shared the bedroom of the hotel suite, while Kaplan stayed in the front room using a foldout bed.

On Saturday morning, September 3, Schub and Kaplan awoke early to meet relatives at the complimentary breakfast served on the first floor of the hotel. As she and Kaplan left the room at approximately 7:28 a.m., Schub told Nathan to go back to sleep, since she did not need to be at the temple that morning as early as the family. Kaplan had the only room key for the group and made sure the door was locked when he and Schub left for breakfast.

At approximately 8:08 a.m., Schub and Kaplan finished breakfast and returned upstairs to their room. Kaplan unlocked the door and discovered Nathan lying nude on the floor. Employees and hotel guests rushed up to Room 237, where Schub was found screaming and shaking. A cardiologist, a respiratory therapist, and a nurse happened to be at the hotel at the time, and they came to the room to help resuscitate Nathan.

Initially, witnesses thought Nathan had had a fall, perhaps brought on by a heart attack, since there seemed to be little blood on or around Nathan. However, further investigation revealed that Nathan’s hair was soaked with blood and that she had suffered severe trauma to her head. When Nathan’s head was moved, witnesses found a tooth on the floor. Later, Schub asked for and was given her purse, which she had left in the hotel room during breakfast. Upon opening her wallet, which was inside the purse, Schub noticed that money was missing.

During the commotion, Schub noticed that Nathan no longer had the pendant necklace that she had been wearing earlier and that she always wore. The pendant was a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry that Nathan’s late husband had made from his mother’s wedding band. It consisted of several connected gold bars, one containing diamonds. According to Nathan’s daughter-in-law, Nathan never took the pendant off. Nathan died that afternoon as a result of multiple traumas to her head and body. The coroner’s office determined that the death was a homicide.

Police quickly set up a command center in a banquet room on the second floor near the murder scene in Room 237. Police canvassed the rooms at the hotel and took statements from guests and hotel employees working that day. Police then began to concentrate their investigation on three particular hotel employees who had prior criminal histories. Police cleared two of the employees through further investigation and narrowed their investigation to defendant-appellant, Elwood “Butch” Jones. Police discovered from interviews with other hotel employees that appellant had injured his hand on the day Nathan was killed. This fact pointed to appellant as a suspect because the crime at the hotel involved a violent assault. Appellant had filed a claim for workers’ compensation for medical benefits. The police thereafter subpoenaed and received the medical records for the treatment of appellant’s hand injury.

On September 12, 1994, Sgt. Robert Lilley of the Blue Ash Police Department spoke with one of appellant’s treating physicians, Dr. John McDonough. Lilley learned through another police investigator that Dr. McDonough had classified appellant’s injury as a fist-to-mouth injury and that Dr. McDonough had asked appellant if he received the injury by punching someone in the mouth. That same day, police went to the residence of Earlene Metcalfe in Loveland. Metcalfe worked at the hotel and was a girlfriend of appellant, in addition to being listed as a witness to appellant’s hand injury on his workers’ compensation claim form. Upon arriving at Metcalfe’s residence, police found appellant there, and both he and Metcalfe voluntarily agreed to answer questions at the Blue Ash Police station concerning the homicide at the hotel.

At the police station, appellant was advised of his Miranda rights and signed a waiver form. During the interview with Sgt. Lilley and Blue Ash Police Officer Larry Stokes, appellant stated that he and Metcalfe arrived at the hotel on September 3 at approximately 5:00 a.m. At that time, appellant signed out a hotel master key at the front desk as he did every day at work. Since appellant was not due to clean the hotel banquet rooms until 10:00 a.m., he began to help Metcalfe set up the complimentary breakfast area. Shortly after 6:00 a.m., appellant learned that a coworker would not be in to work that morning, so he went to the second floor of the hotel to begin cleaning the banquet rooms. Appellant stated that at around that time, he slipped on steps outside the hotel and fell, cutting his left hand while taking trash out to the hotel dumpster. He then finished cleaning the Maple banquet room and went downstairs to help with the hotel’s complimentary breakfast.

According to Lilley, appellant was forceful and almost defensive when he claimed that he worked at the breakfast from approximately 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. that day. Appellant further claimed that he was cleaning tables in the restaurant dining area when he heard screams from the second floor as well as a trouble call over a coworker’s employer-provided walkie-talkie.

Appellant told Lilley that he again hurt his hand in a banquet room later that day and that he really thought nothing more of the injury until it started bothering him several days later on September 6. Appellant reiterated that he never left the restaurant on September 3 between 6:30 and 8:00 a.m. and asserted that he was never inside Room 237, since he had no reason to be in any of the guest rooms at the hotel. Lilley asked if he was involved in the murder, and appellant declared that he wanted to talk to an attorney before he answered any more questions. At that point, the interview ceased.

The police secured Metcalfe’s consent to search her residence and also obtained a warrant to search a vehicle owned by appellant, which was parked in Metcalfe’s driveway in Loveland. In addition, police obtained a search warrant for appellant’s residence on Morman Avenue in Cincinnati. While police seized many items of apparel from the two residences, none of them yielded any trace evidence of blood. However, the search of appellant’s car produced several items of evidence. Inside the toolbox in the trunk of appellant’s car was the unique pendant belonging to Nathan. Also recovered from the toolbox was a master key to the hotel, which could open Room 237, where the murder took place. Police also recovered door security chains, which were later used in attempting to match marks on Nathan’s body found on autopsy photos.

The last test results on the seized items came back in August 1995, and the case was later submitted to the grand jury. On September 27, 1995, the grand jury indicted appellant on two counts of aggravated felony-murder (during an aggravated burglary and during an aggravated robbery), and separate counts of aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery. Death-penalty specifications attached to each aggravated murder count alleged that appellant was the principal offender in the aggravated murder during a burglary and the principal offender in the aggravated murder during a robbery or committed the offenses with prior calculation and design. Ultimately the prosecution proceeded only on the first alternative, that appellant was the principal offender. R.C. 2929.04(A)(7). Police arrested appellant at his place of employment in downtown Cincinnati later that day and took him to the District 1 police station for processing.

While at the District 1 headquarters, appellant was shown a copy of the indictment and told he was under arrest for the murder of Rhoda Nathan, as well as for burglary and the robbery involving her pendant necklace. At that point, appellant inquired, “What necklace?” Sgt. Lilley then produced a photo sheet of the pendant recovered from appellant’s car and placed it on the table. Appellant then stated that he had never seen it before in his life. Sgt. Lilley told appellant that the pendant had been recovered from the trunk of his car. Appellant declared, “Not in my fucking car.”

A jury trial was held wherein numerous witnesses were called by both the prosecution and defense. Among the prosecution witnesses was Dr. John McDonough, who was appellant’s physician during his hand surgery. Dr. McDonough testified that he took a culture from the wound in appellant’s left hand and that testing indicated a “mixed flora” of organisms. One of the organisms detected was eikenella corrodens, an organism usually found in dental plaque, which Dr. McDonough described as extremely rare in hand injuries. Dr. McDonough testified that, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, the infection to appellant’s hand was caused by a fist-to-mouth injury because of the presence of eikenella corrodens. This type of injury is sometimes referred to as a “fight bite.” The defense put into evidence the testimony of an expert, Dr. Joseph Solomkin, who questioned the likelihood of Dr. McDonough’s conclusion. Dr. Solomkin testified that it was possible that the eikenella corrodens had come from some source other than an assault victim’s mouth.

After deliberation, the jury found appellant guilty as charged.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1613366.html

Marvin Johnson Ohio Death Row

Marvin Johnson was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the sexual assault of an ex girlfriend and murder of her thirteen year old son According to court documents Marvin Johnson would go to the home of his ex girlfriend where he would beat to death the woman’s thirteen year old son Daniel Bailey. Marvin Johnson would hide the boy’s body in the basement and waited for the woman to come home. When she arrived she would be sexually assaulted at knife point, forced to drive to a bank and withdrawal cash. Marvin Johnson would flee shortly after however he would be arrested. Marvin Johnson would be convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Marvin Johnson 2021 Information

Number A469784

DOB 10/23/1966

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 06/04/2004

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Marvin Johnson More News

The record reveals that Tina Bailey lived on Stewart Avenue in Cambridge, Ohio. Marvin Johnson first met her in 1998 or 1999, and he eventually began living with her on Stewart Avenue. Between 2000 and 2002, an Alabama court incarcerated him for violating parole in connection with a 1988 arson conviction in that state. Upon his release, however, Johnson returned to Ohio and resided with Tina until July 2003.

{¶ 4} During the time Johnson lived with Tina, his use of crack cocaine became problematic. Frequently, Johnson did not come home on payday but would instead disappear for a night or two to spend his paycheck on crack. And due to his drug habit, he only reluctantly contributed money to the household. He also had a strained relationship with Tina’s two children, especially Daniel, because he resented Tina’s generosity toward them.

{¶ 5} Both Johnson and Tina were friends of Utelius “Eric” Barnes. Johnson occasionally became jealous of Barnes, and he suspected that Tina and Barnes had a relationship.

{¶ 6} On July 3, 2003, after several weeks of tension in her relationship with Johnson, Tina told Johnson to leave. Though she later allowed him back into her house two or three times, she made it clear to him that he did not have permission to enter the house in her absence.

{¶ 7} Nevertheless, twice during the two or three weeks before August 15, 2003, Johnson entered her house while she was at work. On the second occasion, she returned to find him there, and she ordered him to leave. Johnson refused, and he dared her to call the police. As they argued, according to Tina’s trial testimony, Johnson “pulled his arm back,” as if to strike her, and he warned that she “shouldn’t be surprised if [she] found [her] house in ashes.” Eventually, he voluntarily left her home.

{¶ 8} Tina worked as a nurse at the Southeastern Ohio Regional Medical Center, a hospital in Cambridge, Ohio, and during the summer, she often worked the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift. Her son, Daniel, who would stay at home alone while Tina worked, customarily stayed up until 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. and would phone her at work to say goodnight before he went to bed. On the night of August 14, 2003, Tina worked the late shift while Daniel stayed at home alone, and, in keeping with his habit, he phoned his mother in the early morning hours of August 15 to say goodnight before he went to bed.

{¶ 9} That same evening, Johnson stayed at the home of Lisa Wilson, an acquaintance of his and a drug dealer. David Jones, another Wilson acquaintance, also spent the night at Wilson’s home. At midnight, Wilson went on what she described as a “crack run,” and she testified that she saw Johnson asleep on her couch when she left. When she returned at 3:00 a.m., she remembered seeing him in the same position, and at 3:30 a.m., when she left a second time, she also noticed him there.

{¶ 10} Around 5:30 a.m., when Wilson returned, she did not see Johnson but learned from David Jones that he had gotten up about 5:00. According to Wilson, Jones also told her that “ten minutes [sic] after [Wilson] had left at 3:30,” he heard Johnson “rummaging through a bag in the kitchen” before he left. The bag contained old shoes that Wilson had collected.

{¶ 11} Sometime after Daniel’s phone call to his mother, saying goodnight, Johnson beat 13-year-old Daniel Bailey to death. The presence of blood spatters in the living room of the Bailey home established that the beating occurred there.

{¶ 12} According to Dr. Charles Lee, the physician who performed the autopsy, Daniel suffered multiple skull fractures, bruising on his face, and two long lacerations on his head caused by five or six blows from a blunt instrument, possibly a two-by-four. The blows caused Daniel’s brain to swell within the skull cavity until his breathing stopped. In such cases, according to Dr. Lee, death “typically takes anywhere from a couple to several minutes.”

{¶ 13} After beating Daniel, Johnson gagged and hogtied him with shoelaces he had taken from the bag in Lisa Wilson’s home. According to Dr. Lee, Daniel’s head injuries occurred before Johnson tied his hands and feet. Dr. Lee also concluded that Daniel was still alive when he was tied up: “Yes, there’s no question he was alive. * * * [T]he skin reaction, the red hyperemia next to the bindings around his wrists shows that * * * the heart was still pumping while these tight bindings were around the wrists.”

{¶ 14} After beating Daniel and tying him up, Johnson carried him to the basement of the Bailey home.

{¶ 15} Tina returned from work around 8:00 a.m. and spoke briefly with Utelius Barnes, as he prepared to start his second day of work on the remodeling project at her home. The two went inside and discussed the work for another 20 minutes. Tina then went upstairs.

{¶ 16} When she reached the top of the stairs, she saw Johnson coming out of the bathroom wearing an olive-colored T-shirt and carrying a knife in his hand. As Johnson held the knife up in front of her, Tina asked him to put it down, and said, “[W]here’s Daniel, what did you do to Daniel [?]”

{¶ 17} Johnson walked Tina into her bedroom. When Tina began to hyperventilate, Johnson told her to “calm down” and to “keep quiet” because Barnes and another home-remodeler were nearby. According to Tina, Johnson warned that if she did not obey, “he couldn’t guarantee that Daniel would be okay.” She testified that Johnson told her that Daniel “would be okay,” provided that she complied with three demands: first, Johnson wanted to watch Barnes and Tina have sex; second, he wanted to have sex with Tina “one last time” himself; and, third, he wanted $1,000. Tina asked Johnson why he was doing this, and he replied, “[T]his [is] the only way I know how to hurt you.”

{¶ 18} She disrobed and performed oral sex on him, and he placed his fingers in her vagina. He continued to hold the knife during these acts. Tina testified that she would not have done this had she not been afraid for Daniel or if Johnson had not held the knife.

{¶ 19} Afterward, according to Tina, Johnson told her to “get up and get dressed, we ha[ve] to go to the bank.” She got dressed and walked out of the bedroom ahead of Johnson, who still held the knife. She again asked him to put it down, and he returned to the bedroom and placed the knife under the mattress on the bed. Police later recovered it there with Johnson’s thumbprint on it.

{¶ 20} Johnson persuaded Tina to drive him to her bank where, using the drive-through window, she withdrew $1,000 and handed it to him. Bank records and the teller’s testimony reveal that this transaction occurred between 8:48 and 8:50 a.m. on August 15. Johnson then had Tina drive him to the parking lot of the local Elks Lodge, and he told her to go home and said he would call to tell her what he had done with Daniel.

{¶ 21} Tina went home and found Daniel in the basement behind her washing machine, gagged, tied and lying face down in a blanket. She tried to remove the gag and tried to revive him before she ran upstairs and asked one of the home-remodelers to call the police.

{¶ 22} Meanwhile, Johnson went to the home of his friend, Matthew Heskett, where he took off his bloodstained shirt, left it on the floor, and borrowed a clean one from Heskett. He then called a taxi and left for Zanesville.

{¶ 23} While Johnson was en route to Zanesville, the Cambridge police learned of Johnson’s departure and radioed the Zanesville police to look for the cab.

{¶ 24} Patrolman Mike Choma of the Zanesville police spotted the cab and saw Johnson walking away from it. Choma and another officer approached Johnson and ordered him to the ground. However, Johnson fled to an abandoned park and hid the money that he had taken from Tina. The police later recovered both the money and the bank envelope.

{¶ 25} The police also recovered Johnson’s bloody shirt from the Haskett residence and sent it to the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (“BCI”) for analysis. BCI found the bloodstains on the shirt to be consistent with the DNA profile of Daniel Bailey. According to BCI, the chance of finding the same DNA profile in a random member of the population is one in more than 320 trillion.

{¶ 26} The Guernsey County Grand Jury indicted Johnson on two counts of aggravated murder: Count 1, pursuant to the felony-murder provision in R.C. 2903.01(B), and Count 2, pursuant to the “prior calculation and design” provision in R.C. 2903.01(A). Each aggravated-murder count carried a death-penalty specification charging Johnson as the principal offender in a felony murder, pursuant to R.C. 2929.04(A)(7). The indictment also contained counts for kidnapping, rape, and aggravated robbery. The jury convicted him of all counts and all specifications, and, following the jury’s recommendation, the trial judge sentenced him to death.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1199964.html