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Lamont Hunter Ohio Death Row

Lamont Hunter was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the sexual assault and murder of a three year old boy. According to court documents Lamont Hunter would sexually assault a three year old boy with a sharp object before shaking Trustin Blue causing his death. Lamont Hunter was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Lamont Hunter 2021 Information

Number A559336

DOB 08/30/1968

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 10/02/2007

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Lamont Hunter More News

In late 2003, Hunter and Luzmilda Blue began a romantic relationship. Hunter then started living with Luzmilda and her three boys, Tyree, Tyrell, and Trustin Blue, born September 12, 2002. Hunter was not the biological father of any of these children. Hunter and Luzmilda later became the parents of a girl, Trinity Hunter.

{¶ 4} After Trustin was born, Luzmilda became sick, and Wilma Forte, a family friend, began taking care of Trustin. Trustin had lived with Forte and her daughter, Amber White, five or six days a week until his death.

{¶ 5} On January 30, 2004, Trustin was taken to the emergency room at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital because he was unable to bear weight on his left leg. X-rays showed that Trustin had a broken leg. Hunter told medical personnel that he had fallen on some steps while holding Trustin and had landed on him. Doctors accepted Hunter’s explanation that Trustin’s injuries were accidental.

{¶ 6} On June 9, 2004, Luzmilda took Trustin to the emergency room after noticing that his lips and penis were swollen. She also noticed other injuries on Trustin’s face and head. Trustin had been left in Hunter’s care that day. Luzmilda had not noticed any of these injuries when she left the house earlier that morning.

{¶ 7} Dr. Kathy Makoroff, the examining physician, determined that Trustin had a swollen upper and lower lip, an abrasion in one ear and a scratch on his ear canal, hair loss and bruising on one side of his head, and bruising on the tops of both ears. His penis was swollen and had an abrasion at its base.

{¶ 8} Dr. Makoroff could not rule out the possibility that a bug had gotten into a loose-fitting diaper and had caused the swelling. But a bug bite would not have caused the bruising on the penis. Moreover, X-rays showed that Trustin had suffered several fractures, in addition to the fracture from January. These included an old and a new fracture on a hand and two fractures on a foot. Dr. Makoroff referred Trustin’s case to children services and law-enforcement authorities.

{¶ 9} Tiffany Bradbury, an investigator with Hamilton County Job and Family Services, interviewed Hunter about Trustin’s injuries. Hunter stated that that he did not see any injuries on Trustin on June 9 and denied hurting him. Hunter said that when he was walking down the stairs with Trustin, he had tripped, and maybe Trustin had been injured.

{¶ 10} Criminal charges were not brought against Hunter for Trustin’s injuries. But Trustin was removed from his home in June 2004 and was placed with his aunt, Latoya Gresham. Amber White obtained custody of Trustin six months later. In June 2005, Trustin was returned to Luzmilda’s custody. But after a week, Luzmilda took Trustin back to White’s home.

{¶ 11} Beginning in 2003, White had noticed that Trustin was afraid of Hunter. She stated that Trustin would start crying, shaking, and vomiting when Hunter came around. Forte noticed similar behavior. Forte testified that on one occasion, she was holding Trustin, and he started vomiting when Hunter passed them. On January 17, 2006, two days before he was killed, Trustin told Forte that he was “scared of Lamont. Lamont scared. Lamont hurt Trustin.”

{¶ 12} On January 17, 2006, Trustin was staying at White’s home. That afternoon, Luzmilda picked up Trustin and took him to her home. Before leaving, Forte gave Trustin a bath and dressed him. Forte did not notice any injuries in Trustin’s anal area or elsewhere on his body.

{¶ 13} At 9:00 a.m. on January 19, 2006, Forte spoke to Hunter and Trustin on the telephone for more than 15 minutes. Hunter said that Trustin was fine and was watching a movie. Trustin told Forte that he was watching the movie Jurassic Park. Forte stated that Trustin’s voice sounded shaky, and he did not seem to be his normal, energetic self.

{¶ 14} Two hours later, Hunter called Luzmilda at work and told her that Trustin had been injured. Luzmilda rushed home. At 11:21 a.m., Luzmilda called 9-1-1 and reported that her son had been hurt after falling down the stairs.

{¶ 15} EMTs arriving at the scene found that Trustin had a low pulse rate and labored breathing and was paralyzed and nonresponsive. Lieutenant Eric Prather, a Cincinnati fireman, asked Hunter how Trustin had been injured. Hunter said that Trustin had fallen down the basement steps. Hunter stated that he thought that Trustin had fallen when Trustin had tried to stop Tiffany from going down the steps.

{¶ 16} Dr. Makoroff examined Trustin when he was taken to Children’s Hospital. Hunter and Luzmilda told Dr. Makoroff that Trustin had been in his normal state of health that morning. Hunter then explained that he was in the basement doing laundry with his nine-month-old daughter. He heard some rumbling upstairs and saw Trustin tumbling down the basement steps, landing on the concrete floor. Hunter said that Trustin had been unresponsive when he went to help him. Hunter splashed water on Trustin’s face. When Trustin did not respond, Hunter called Luzmilda at work.

{¶ 17} Dr. Makoroff’s examination of Trustin showed that his injuries were not consistent with a fall down the stairs. Trustin suffered a diffuse injury to his brain. He had subdural hemorrhages on both sides of the brain that extended into the middle of the brain. Swelling of his brain was so severe that it had started to herniate into the spinal column. Further examination showed that Trustin had suffered a deep anal tear. The injury was acute and could have been just hours old. Dr. Makoroff testified that the bruising and lacerations were consistent with the insertion of an object into the anal cavity.

{¶ 18} During the afternoon of January 19, 2006, Cincinnati police detectives Jane Noel and Jim Wiggington interviewed Hunter about Trustin’s injuries. After waiving his Miranda rights, Hunter provided a videotaped statement, most of which was played for the panel at trial. In the video, Hunter addresses questions about Trustin’s 2004 injuries, as well as the ones that he had suffered that day.

{¶ 19} Hunter told police that Luzmilda had left for work at 6:00 that morning. Trustin, Terrell, and Tyree woke up at 8:00 a.m. Terrell and Tyree, ages 8 and 11, left for school at 8:45 a.m. Hunter said that Trustin had been acting fine when he awoke. Trustin ate some breakfast and started watching Jurassic Park.

{¶ 20} Hunter left Trustin in the living room, and he went with Trinity to the basement to do laundry. Shortly thereafter, Hunter heard Trustin running upstairs. Hunter thought that Trustin was excited about the dinosaurs in the movie and was rushing to tell him about them. Hunter then heard Trustin tumbling down the basement stairs. Hunter said that he heard every step that Trustin hit as he fell down the stairs. Hunter turned around and saw Trustin at the bottom of the steps. Trustin was folded over, and his leg was on the bottom step.

{¶ 21} Hunter said that Trustin was limp and unresponsive. He took Trustin upstairs and splashed water on his face. He also attempted to revive Trustin. Hunter then called Luzmilda and told her what happened. She immediately came home and called 9-1-1.

{¶ 22} As the interview progressed, Detective Wiggington told Hunter that the attending physician did not think that Trustin’s injuries were consistent with a fall down the steps. Hunter replied that he did not have “an answer to that.” Hunter stated that what happened was simply an accident. Hunter said that the only thing he could have done differently was to remain upstairs or shut the basement door when he did the laundry.

{¶ 23} Hunter told investigators that nothing else happened to Trustin before the fall. He stated that Trustin had been fine the previous evening and that Trustin had slept with his mother. Hunter said that he would never hurt a child. He also stated that he did not injure Trustin by shaking him. However, investigators did not ask Hunter about the anal tear during the interview, and nothing was mentioned about it.

{¶ 24} On January 20, 2006, Barbara Mirlenbrink, a criminalist with the Cincinnati police department, went to Trustin’s home to collect evidence. She found no evidence of blood or anything of evidentiary value on the basement stairs or elsewhere in the house. Mirlenbrink stated that there were 11 carpeted steps leading from the kitchen to the basement floor. The distance from the top of the stairs to the bottom of the steps was 11 feet, two inches. She also examined the washer and dryer in the basement. She found that the washer was empty, and clothing was on top of the dryer.

{¶ 25} On January 27, 2006, Mirlenbrink returned to Trustin’s home and looked for sharp objects that might have been inserted into Trustin’s anus. Mirlenbrink collected two Tiki torches and a tire gauge. Subsequent forensic testing of these items disclosed nothing of evidentiary value. But Mirlenbrink stated that blood was found on the underwear that Trustin had been wearing.

{¶ 26} On January 21, 2006, CT scans showed that Trustin was brain dead. On January 22, 2006, Dr. Mona Stephens, the Hamilton County deputy coroner, conducted the autopsy on Trustin. Her examination found two separate areas of broad impact on Trustin’s head. The brain itself was very swollen and had a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Trustin also suffered a serious neck injury. Dr. Stephen stated that the cartilage had been pulled loose from the thoracic vertebra.

{¶ 27} Dr. Stephens stated that the two distinct impact sites show that something had struck Trustin in the head or his body had been slammed against something. She stated, “[I]f he were struck in the head, it would have to be a blow such that the neck would then travel in a sharp fashion and * * * [would require] a major amount of force.” Alternatively, Dr. Stephens said that “if he were picked up and held by the torso or below and hit against something, that would be an easier injury to produce * * * because there is more movement associated with that to pop that disk loose from the spine bone.”

{¶ 28} Dr. Stephens found a 1.9 centimeter laceration of Trustin’s anus. There was a hemorrhage along the rectum’s lining and a hemorrhage going into both sides of the pelvis. There were also three areas of perforation of the rectal mucosa. Dr. Stephens stated that these perforations “would be similar to what you could produce with something like a pencil, jammed with a pencil or something sharp like that, or could even be from an angled insertion of something.”

{¶ 29} Dr. Stephens concluded, “[D]iffuse brain injury due to blunt impact/shaking injuries to the head [is] the cause of death. The manner of death is homicide.” She stated that Trustin’s injuries were not consistent with a fall down the steps. Dr. Stephens also testified, “The only way I can conceive of this being partially caused by a fall down 11 carpeted steps is if he had fallen off the side of the stairs and landed on his head twice, and that still wouldn’t have explained the anal injuries.”

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1589278.html

Lance Hundley Ohio Death Row

Lance Hundley was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the murder of a disabled woman. According to court documents Lance Hundley would murder the victim, Erika Huff, who was wheelchair bound due to MS and would attempt to murder her mother before setting her house on fire. Lance Hundley would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Lance Hundley 2021 Information

Number A751708

DOB 10/08/1969

Date 06/07/2018

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Lance Hundley More News

The Ohio Supreme Court today affirmed the conviction and death sentence of a Youngstown man who murdered a disabled woman he briefly lived with, then tried to kill her mother, and set them both on fire.

A Supreme Court majority rejected the claim of Lance Hundley that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of the November 2015 murder of Erika Huff, the attempted murder of her mother, and arson. Writing for the Court, Justice Sharon L. Kennedy stated that “Huff’s death was the result of a well-thought-out plan and the attack was drawn out.”

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and Justices Judith L. French, Patrick F. Fischer, R. Patrick DeWine, and Melody J. Stewart joined the opinion. Justice Michael P. Donnelly concurred in judgment only.

Huff had a progressive form of multiple sclerosis and could no longer walk. She used a wheelchair to move around, had a lift to assist her into bed, received daily care from nursing aides, and wore a medical-alert necklace that was monitored by a medical response company. If the alert was activated, the company would call Huff’s mother and also dispatch an ambulance to Huff’s address.

Hundley had recently moved from Washington D.C., and been living with his brother. Hundley’s brother had a child with Huff, and Hundley said he knew Huff for about eight years. Hundley asked Huff if he could stay at her house and she agreed.

On Nov. 5, 2015, A’Shawntay Heard, a nurse’s aide, helped Huff get into bed at the end of her shift. At Huff’s request, Heard placed the cash from Huff’s monthly disability check underneath her thighs, between the bedsheet and Huff’s body. She gave Huff her personal phone number, which was against company policy, because Heard felt that “something was going to happen.” Heard said Hundley had been in and out of the house all day and was making her feel uncomfortable.

At 2:01 a.m. the next morning, Huff’s medical alert necklace was activated and an ambulance was dispatched to Huff’s home. Emergency medical technicians responded. A man, one EMT later identified as Hundley, opened the front door and told her the alarm was accidentally triggered and there was nothing wrong. The ambulance squad left.

The medical response company also called Huff’s mother, Denise Johnson. When she arrived, she found Hundley standing in the home with a gasoline can, and asked Hundley where Huff was. Johnson picked up the gasoline can and took it to the garage. Upon re-entering the house, Hundley attacked her, and hit her repeatedly with a hammer.

During the attack, Hundley told Johnson he killed Huff. Hundley also grabbed a kitchen knife and held it to Johnson’s face while choking her. Johnson lost consciousness and when she regained consciousness, she was lying on the floor in Huff’s bedroom next to her daughter. Johnson could see flames burning at her feet and around Huff’s body, which she tried to brush away. She attempted to escape through a window by dislodging an air-conditioning unit.

Johnson’s husband drove to the house and called 911 just before 3 a.m. Youngstown police arrived and heard Johnson scream for help. Once the police pulled Johnson to safety, they noticed Huff’s body. Officers entered the house three times, but twice had to retreat because of heavy smoke. The third time they entered the home they found Hundley lying on the floor near the front door, hiding halfway underneath the dining-room table. Hundley and Johnson were transported to a local hospital for treatment. Johnson sustained multiple significant injuries and told police Hundley attacked her.

After reviewing the autopsy report, the medical examiner concluded that Huff died from “two mechanisms,” — blunt trauma to her head and body and strangulation with a cord. The examiner concluded she died before the fire was ignited and that the blows to her body were not immediately fatal. The blunt-force trauma was leading to “massive internal bleeding around her belly,” and contributed to her death in conjunction with the strangulation.

At the hospital, police took Hundley into custody and he told police he and Huff had a good relationship. He said he had been at a local bar and had a few drinks before returning to Huff’s home. He claimed he had been “choked out” by a stranger who broke into Huff’s home, and Hundley denied killing her.

A grand jury indicted Hundley on five counts: aggravated murder with prior calculation and design; attempted murder; felonious assault; and two counts of aggravated arson. The aggravated murder charge included a death-penalty specification.

Hundley pleaded not guilty to all counts.

The prosecution presented DNA evidence linking Hundley to the murder as well as finding gasoline on the clothes he was wearing when the fire in the house started. Johnson testified, as did police and fire investigators.

Hundley said he returned to the home from a local bar around 11:30 p.m. and talked to Huff before he went to sleep on the living room couch. He testified the next thing he remembered “was being woke up with somebody strangling [him] out from behind.” He said he blacked out and woke up on the kitchen floor. He said he then saw a dark-skinned black male about his height leaving Huff’s bedroom carrying a gasoline can.

He said he saw Johnson with the gasoline can and the intruder sitting in Johnson’s husband’s truck. He said he began to hit Johnson with a hammer because he “didn’t know what she was going to do from that point.”

The jury deliberated for less than four hours before convicting Hundley on all charges. Hundley then fired his attorneys and represented himself at a mitigation phase of the trial. The prosecution presented into evidence most of the exhibits from the guilt phase of the trial . Handley did not present any mitigating evidence.

The jury recommended a death sentence based on aggravated murder by prior calculation and design. The trial judge imposed the death sentence and, as to the noncapital offenses, sentenced Hundley to 22 years in prison for the attempted murder and arson charges.

http://www.courtnewsohio.gov/cases/2020/SCO/0722/180901.asp#.YF5HHijYrrc

Gary Hughbanks Ohio Death Row

Gary Hughbanks was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a double murder. According to court documents Gary Hughbanks broke into the victim’s home and when they confronted him he would murder 55-year-old William Leeman and his wife, 53-year-old Juanita Leeman. Gary Hughbanks would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Gary Hughbanks 2021 Information

Number A362032

DOB 08/29/1966

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 07/13/1998

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Gary Hughbanks More News

Around 9:00 p.m. on May 13, 1987, William and Juanita Leeman returned to their home in Springfield Township in Hamilton County, Ohio. Once inside, William Leeman confronted a burglar, who proceeded to kill 55-year-old William and 53-year-old Juanita with a knife.

{¶ 3} These murders went unsolved for ten years. In August 1997, Larry Hughbanks, the defendant’s brother, and Gary Hughbanks Sr., the defendant’s father, informed police that Hughbanks had murdered the Leemans.

{¶ 4} Hughbanks was tried and convicted of the aggravated murders of the Leemans and sentenced to death. To establish Hughbanks’s guilt, the state introduced a confession, testimony that Hughbanks’s accurately described the layout of the Leeman home and the Leemans’ personal property, and two of Hughbanks’s knives, which were linked to the murders.

{¶ 5} Hughbanks had gone to the Leeman home during the evening of May 13, 1987, to commit burglary. After looking through the windows to ensure that no one was home, Hughbanks broke in through a back window. Hughbanks went to the master bedroom and took William’s wallet and jewelry from the dresser.

{¶ 6} When the Leemans came into the house, William confronted Hughbanks in a bedroom. Hughbanks attacked William with a knife, stabbed him repeatedly, and then slit his throat. According to Hughbanks’s confession, the attack was over in “a matter of seconds.” After Hughbanks slit William’s throat, he chased Juanita into the living room, grabbed her, and slit her throat.

{¶ 7} Hughbanks washed in the bathroom and left a bloody hand towel in the sink. He then left the house through the back door, ran through the back yard into adjoining woods, and traveled along a creek to a nearby school. Hughbanks was gone by the time police officers arrived.

{¶ 8} After being attacked, Juanita stumbled out the front door of her home. While bleeding profusely, she somehow moved from the patio to the driveway, then down the driveway, before collapsing near the street.

{¶ 9} At approximately 9:25 p.m. that evening, Police Officer Pat Kemper was driving his patrol car when he saw someone lying on the driveway at the Leemans’ house “waving [her] arm in a real slow motion * * * to get attention.” Kemper noticed that the person was covered in blood. Upon stopping, Kemper asked, “Who did this to you[?]” Juanita was conscious, but when she started to talk, “blood was gurgling out of her throat, and the whole side of her face just fell open * * *.” Juanita died of her injuries at the hospital.

{¶ 10} Police officers entered the Leemans’ house and found William’s body in the master bedroom. There were signs of a violent struggle; part of the bedroom wall was bashed in, a lamp was turned over, and blood was smeared on the wall. There was a pool of blood on the carpet between the bed and the wall and a pool of blood under William’s head. The telephone cord had been cut, and open dresser drawers appeared to have been searched.

{¶ 11} A “large puddle of blood” on the living room carpet indicated where Juanita had been attacked. A trail of blood leading out the front door, onto the front porch, and down the driveway showed Juanita’s line of travel after the attack.

{¶ 12} Blood smears on an unlocked back screen door suggested that the killer had left that way. On the day after the murders, a police bloodhound tracked the killer’s scent using the hand towel Hughbanks had left in the sink. The bloodhound followed the scent out the back door, down a hill, and into the creek that borders the Leemans’ back yard. The bloodhound then traveled along the creek for a quarter of a mile before losing the scent near a neighborhood school.

{¶ 13} The police investigation did not uncover any trace evidence, hair fibers, or fingerprints that could identify the killer. Between May 1987 and August 1997, the police checked out “hundreds of leads,” but the killer remained unidentified.

{¶ 14} During the summer of 1997, Larry Hughbanks told the police that Gary Hughbanks Jr., his brother, had killed the Leemans. Larry told police that Hughbanks was living in Arizona, but that before leaving, Hughbanks had said, “[I] did it, and * * * threw the knife in some woods.” Gary Hughbanks Sr., the defendant’s father, soon thereafter went to the police station “to talk * * * about his son murdering the Leemans.”

{¶ 15} In August 1997, Larry and Gary Sr. met with John Jay, an investigator with the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office, and Mark Piepmeier, an assistant county prosecutor. Larry turned over a survival knife with a ball compass on the end of the handle. Larry said that Hughbanks “had thrown that knife in a wooded area back in the early part of 1988 out in Amelia, Ohio, when they lived in a trailer.” Gary Sr. also implicated Hughbanks in the Leeman murders.

{¶ 16} Subsequent police interviews of Jerry Shaw, Hughbanks’s uncle, and Howard Shaw, Hughbanks’s cousin, resulted in additional information implicating Hughbanks as the Leemans’ killer. Lisa Leggett, identified as Hughbanks’s “ex-common-law wife,” provided police with another survival knife with a ball compass on the handle that had belonged to Hughbanks. In May 1987, Leggett and Hughbanks had lived near the Leeman home. According to Leggett, the knife was “left behind by [Hughbanks] when they split.”

{¶ 17} In September 1997, Tucson, Arizona police arrested Hughbanks. During a police interview on September 9, 1997, Hughbanks denied any involvement in the Leeman murders. Thereafter, Hughbanks remained in police custody in Arizona pending extradition to Ohio.

{¶ 18} Several days later, on September 16, 1997, Tucson police detectives interviewed Hughbanks again. Hughbanks admitted breaking into the Leemans’ house and said that two accomplices had been with him during the burglary. Later, Hughbanks said that a fourth man might have also been at the scene. Hughbanks admitted confronting William in the bedroom after the Leemans arrived home but stated that an accomplice had stabbed William and cut his throat. Hughbanks stated that he did not know where Juanita had been and said that his accomplice had “probably got her first.”

{¶ 19} As Hughbanks’s interview progressed, Hughbanks acknowledged telling his father, brother, and uncle, “I killed somebody.” Hughbanks then said, “I went in to commit a burglary. I got scared. I fought with the guy. * * * And I probably ran after the woman and killed her, too.” Hughbanks also admitted that he was by himself when he broke into the home and killed the Leemans. Hughbanks said that he had been “completely surprised” by William and had tried to “get away from him in the bedroom.” Hughbanks indicated that he “probably” tried to get away by getting out the window, but said, “I think he pulled me back.” Hughbanks stated that he had killed the Leemans with a “military knife,” which he had found in an “ammo box” in the Leemans’ bedroom closet.

{¶ 20} When asked about Juanita’s location during her husband’s murder, Hughbanks replied, “Probably behind me, watching me, and then after I cut his throat, she took off running out of the house and I went after her.” Hughbanks said that he caught her in the living room and added, “I figured I cut her enough that she-she’d bleed to death.”

{¶ 21} Hughbanks admitted that he had kept the knife with him when he fled the scene. Hughbanks stated that after he had left the Leemans’ house, he ran towards the woods and creek behind the house. Hughbanks “got the blood off [himself] in the creek” and then followed the creek to Greener School. Later, Hughbanks threw away the costume jewelry that he had taken.

{¶ 22} The grand jury indicted Hughbanks on two counts of aggravated murder. Count 1 charged Hughbanks with the aggravated murder of William Leeman while committing burglary. Count 2 charged Hughbanks with the aggravated murder of Juanita Leeman while committing burglary. The grand jury also indicted Hughbanks for aggravated burglary.

{¶ 23} Each count of aggravated murder contained three identical death penalty specifications: murder for the purpose of escaping detection or apprehension pursuant to R.C. 2929.04(A)(3), murder as part of a course of conduct involving the purposeful killing of two or more people pursuant to R.C. 2929.04(A)(5), and, as the principal offender, murder while committing or attempting to commit aggravated burglary pursuant to R.C. 2929.04(A)(7).

{¶ 24} At trial, Leonard Leeman, the victims’ son, testified that to the best of his knowledge, Hughbanks did not know his parents and had never been inside their house prior to the murders. After reading Hughbanks’s confession, Leonard testified that Hughbanks accurately described the white Formica breakfast bar in the kitchen, the presence of military photographs of the Leemans’ children on the hallway wall, and the location of Afghans in the closet. Moreover, Hughbanks had accurately described the Leeman back yard, the hill leading to the creek, and the path to Greener Elementary School. However, Leonard testified that his parents had not kept any survival knives in their home.

{¶ 25} Detective Kemper pointed out that Hughbanks’s confession accurately described the victims’ wounds and where in the house the attacks took place.

{¶ 26} Dr. Lee Lehman, who was a deputy coroner for Hamilton County in 1987, performed autopsies on both victims. William had been stabbed 17 times. One stab wound was almost four and one-half inches deep. William died as the result of multiple stab wounds to his head, neck, thorax, and extremities.

{¶ 27} Juanita had a “nine-inch by four-inch area of criss-crossing cuts across her throat * * * [and] through the voice box, or larynx, which would prevent her from screaming or talking.” Dr. Lehman concluded that Juanita had died from multiple stab wounds to her head, chest, neck, and extremities.

{¶ 28} Dr. Lehman testified that all of these wounds were caused by a “fairly heavy knife” that was “at least an inch or more in width, and * * * at least four inches in length.” State’s exhibits 45 and 46, the two knives recovered by police as possible murder weapons, were of a type that could have caused the wounds inflicted on the Leemans. Serological testing of the knives failed to reveal any trace of blood.

{¶ 29} At trial, the defense did not present any evidence.

{¶ 30} The jury convicted Hughbanks as charged and recommended the death penalty. The trial court sentenced Hughbanks to death on each count of aggravated murder and sentenced him to a prison term of 10 to 25 years for aggravated burglary.

{¶ 31} The court of appeals affirmed the convictions and sentences. The cause is now before this court upon an appeal as of right.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1491765.html

Danny Hill Ohio Death Row

Danny Hill was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the sexual assault and murder of a twelve year old boy. According to court documents Danny Hill would abduct twelve year old Raymond Fife who was brought to a wooded area where he was tortured, sexually assaulted and beaten. The twelve year old would die in hospital two days later. Danny Hill would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Danny Hill 2021 Information

Number A189528

DOB 01/06/1967

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 03/06/1986

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Danny Hill More News

A panel of federal judges has set a date to hear whether or not Danny Lee Hill should be executed for torturing, raping, and murdering a 12-year-old Warren Boy Scout.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the Hill case on December 5.

Hill was sentenced to death for the 1985 murder of Raymond Fife in a field in Warren. However, the sixth circuit court found earlier that Hill shows signs of being mentally deficient, including an IQ ranging from 48 to 71 and childlike, confused and irrational behavior.

Because a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling declared that executing people with intellectual disabilities is unconstitutional, the death penalty for Hill was taken off the table.

The Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office took the appellate court ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court which refused to hear the case but found several “deficits” in the Sixth District Court of Appeals ruling and sent the case back to the appellate judges for reconsideration.

At the center of the debate is how the appeals court came to their decision. The Supreme Court argues that the Sixth District “relied repeatedly and extensively” on a capital murder case dealing with intellectually deficient individuals.

However, the Supreme Court justices ruled that that specific case Moore v. Texas wasn’t decided until well after Hill’s case.

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins argues that all nine U.S. Supreme Court agreed that the Sixth District Court of Appeals “did not appropriately apply the law.”

The question now, according to Watkins, is whether the “correct law” would bring about the death penalty when applied to the Hill case.

Watkins says the state courts which ruled on the case under the current laws found that Danny Lee Hill should be executed for the crime.

Hill, who was 18 years old at the time of the crime, went to prison when he was 19 and is now 52 years old.

According to court records, on September 10, 1985, at approximately 5:15 p.m., Raymond Fife left home on his bicycle to visit a friend, Billy Simmons.

After learning that the 12-year-old had not arrived at his friend’s home by 5:50 pm, Fife’s family began searching for him.

Raymond Fife’s father found his son more than four hours later in a wooded field behind the Valu-King supermarket on Palmyra road.

The child was naked and appeared to have been severely beaten, and his face was burned. Raymond’s underwear was found tied around his neck and appeared to have been lit on fire.

Raymond died in the hospital two days later.

The coroner, who ruled Raymond’s death a homicide, testified during the trial that the victim had been choked and had a hemorrhage in his brain. The coroner also said that Fife sustained several burns, damage to his rectal-bladder area and bite marks on his penis.

Through testimony from three Warren Western Reserve High School Students, the jury learned that Danny Lee Hill and Timothy Combs were in the area of the Valu-King and the bike trails on the evening Raymond Fife was assaulted. One of the students had also seen Fife riding his bike in the store parking lot.

A student who said he saw Combs on the trail also said he heard a child’s scream. Another student says he saw Combs pulling up the zipper of his blue jeans.

Two days after Fife was found, Danny Lee Hill, who was 18-years-old at the time, went to the Warren Police Station to inquire about a $5,000 reward that was being offered for information concerning the murder.

According to Police Sergeant Thomas Stewart, Hill told him that he had just seen some he knew riding Fife’s bike. When Stewart asked Hill how he knew the bike belonged to Fife, Hill replied, “I know it is.”

Sergeant Stewart testified that during their conversation, it became apparent that Hill knew a lot about the bike and the underwear that was found around Fife’s neck.

On the following Monday, September 16, Hill went to the police station accompanied by his uncle, Warren Police Detective Morris Hill.

Police say after waiving his Miranda rights, Danny Lee Hill admitted on audio and videotape that he was present during the beating and sexual assault of Raymond Fife, but that Timothy Combs did everything to the victim.

Combs was eventually convicted of felonious sexual penetration, arson, rape, kidnapping, and aggravated murder.

Since Combs was 17-years-old at the time of the crime, he was not eligible for the death penalty and was serving a life sentence until his death in prison last year.

Hill was convicted on the same charges, but since he was 18-years-old at the time Fife was assaulted, he was sentenced to death.

https://www.wfmj.com/story/41019259/danny-lee-hill-death-penalty-hearing-set-for-december

Warren Henness Ohio Death Row

Warren Henness was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a brutal murder. According to court documents Warren Henness invited the victim, Richard Meyers, over to his home under the pretense of addiction counseling however when the victim arrived he would be brutally murdered. Warren Henness would then steal his credit cards and vehicle. Warren Henness was arrested and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Warren Henness 2021 Information

Number A287375

DOB 10/13/1963

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 01/27/1994

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Warren Henness More News

Henness was convicted of aggravated murder with specifications and sentenced to death for killing Richard Myers, a fifty-one-year-old laboratory technician from Circleville, Ohio.¹ On the morning of March 20, 1992, Myers told his wife that he had something to do before he reported to work at midnight. Although he did not elaborate, his wife knew that he was an Alcoholics Anonymous volunteer and frequently traveled to Columbus to counsel others about drug and alcohol addictions. When his wife returned home from work that afternoon, Myers was not there. He also failed to report to work that evening.

That same morning, Henness’s wife, Tabatha, answered a telephone call at Robert Curtis’s residence, where she and Henness were staying. The caller identified himself as “Dick” and asked for Henness. After the phone conversation ended, Henness told Tabatha he was going out. A car subsequently arrived for him. Tabatha recognized the driver as “Dick,” a man who had picked up Henness several other times in the same vehicle.

A few hours later, Henness returned to the residence to pick up Tabatha. He was alone and driving Myers’s car. The couple drove to a carwash and smoked crack. In his possession, Henness had checks and credit cards belonging to Myers. Tabatha suggested that they contact Roland Fair, a drug dealer acquaintance, to pose as Myers to “po [p] the checks” and “play on the credit cards.”

The next day, Henness and Tabatha drove to Fair’s apartment. Henness told Fair that the owner of the checks, credit cards, and car was in a motel room with two prostitutes who were keeping him drunk. While at Fair’s apartment, Tabatha saw Henness washing a knife in the bathroom sink. Later, Fair noticed the knife soaking in the sink. The knife had a dark stain on it. Henness told Fair that it was his knife.

Henness, Tabatha, and Fair traveled to several banks and check-cashing outlets for two days, uttering forged checks and getting cash advances with the credit cards. They used the money to buy drugs. They also used the credit cards to buy merchandise, which they then sold for more drugs.

At some point during this activity, Tabatha suggested that Henness tell Fair the truth about Myers. According to Tabatha, Henness told Fair that the owner of the car, checks, and credit cards had pulled a gun on him, Henness shot him, “and the guy died.” According to Fair, Henness never specifically said what he did to Myers, but he did say, “I did not want to do it. He made me do it.” Later, Henness told Fair that the body was in the Nelson Road area in Columbus. The trio discussed possible ways to dispose of it.

A few days later, Tabatha saw Henness with a gold wedding ring that was too big for him. Henness told her it was Myers’s ring. Henness also sold Myers’s car to a sixteen-year-old drug dealer for $250. Henness forged a bill of sale and signed it “Richard Myers.” The following day, the police recovered the car and impounded it because its owner was reported missing. The police questioned the sixteen-year-old, who told them about Henness.

On March 25, the police received an anonymous telephone call alerting them to the body of a dead man in an abandoned water purification plant. There, police discovered the body of Myers. His shoe laces were tied together, his mouth was gagged, and his hands were bound together behind his back with a coat hanger. They found four shell casings and one live round near his body. The four casings were all ejected from the same weapon. Myers had been shot five times in the head. One bullet had penetrated his brain, killing him. He had a large cut on his neck. Abrasions on his knees showed that his knees had struck a hard surface, and were consistent with being forced to kneel on a concrete floor. Myers’s left ring finger had been severed six to eight hours after death.

Columbus police arrested Henness on an unrelated charge. Because he was also a suspect in Myers’s murder, homicide detectives questioned him. During the interrogation, Henness claimed Fair approached him with the checks and credit cards, and suggested that Fair may have committed the murder. Henness also told detectives he had not owned a gun since 1990. However, Tabatha and Curtis testified that Henness had a handgun that he sold to a drug dealer about two weeks after Myers’s murder.

Henness was later interrogated for a second time. He admitted he was with Myers on March 20, and Myers was helping him seek drug counseling and treatment for Tabatha. He also admitted that Fair was not involved in the murder. Instead, he blamed the murder on some Cubans who were trying to settle a score with him. He stated Myers happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1573284.html