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Roland Davis Ohio Death Row

Roland Davis would be sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a murder. Roland Davis would force his way into the elderly victim’s home where Elizabeth Sheeler’ would be brutally murdered. Roland Davis would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Roland Davis 2021 Information

Number A499211

DOB 11/14/1952

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 08/03/2005

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Roland Davis More News

DNA evidence from a 2000 murder in Newark, Ohio recently matched suspect DNA in a cold case in Florida from 1990, police said.

Newark Police said in a release that the DNA evidence may link Roland “Rollie” Thomas Davis, who was arrested and convicted for the murder of 86-year-old Elizabeth Sheeler in 2000, to the 1990 homicide of 42-year-old Sharon Gill in Charlotte County, Florida.

Davis was convicted and put on death row after DNA evidence linked him to the Newark murder in 2004. Court filings said Davis broke into Sheeler’s apartment on the night of July 10, 2000, and murdered her by stabbing her in the neck and chest. He then stole money from her apartment and fled the scene.

Davis was a cab driver who had driven Sheeler to the grocery store, the bank, and other locations in Newark. He had also helped her carry groceries into her apartment on multiple occasions, court filings said.

Davis’s case went all the way to the state supreme court which reaffirmed his death sentence in 2008.

Newark Police said its detectives were recently contacted by authorities from Florida regarding a DNA hit from a 1990 homicide.

According to the department, Davis, 37 years old at the time, had been living in Charlotte, Lee, and Hendry Counties in Florida in 1990. Investigators say he was known to travel between Ohio and Florida from 1970 to 2004.

Florida detectives are searching for more evidence to link Davis to the Charlotte County murder. Anyone with information who may know about Davis’s whereabouts at the time may call 740-670-7928. Callers who wish to remain anonymous can also call Licking County Crime Stoppers at 740-349-6888.

https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/dna-may-link-central-ohio-death-row-inmate-to-florida-cold-case

Jeronique Cunningham Ohio Death Row

Jeronique Cunningham was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for two murders. According to court documents Jeronique Cunningham and Cleveland Jackson would go into a home where they would take a group of people at gunpoint hostage. Jeronique Cunningham and Cleveland Jackson would fire into the group killing Leneshia Williams, 17, and Jala Grant, 3. Jeronique Cunningham and Cleveland Jackson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Jeronique Cunningham 2021 Information

Number A428323

DOB 08/13/1972

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 06/28/2002 Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Cleveland Jackson 2021 Information

Number A429404

DOB 06/26/1978

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 08/09/2002

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Jeronique Cunningham More News

In the early afternoon of January 3, 2002, Cunningham met his friend, Lashane (“Shane”) Liles, at the home of Cunningham’s sister, Tara Cunningham. After discussing a drug transaction, Shane and Cunningham went to Shane’s apartment on East Eureka Street, in Lima, where Shane sold Cunningham crack cocaine.

{¶ 3} Later that afternoon, Tara saw Cunningham and Jackson. According to Tara, Cunningham “was wiping off a gun and Jackson was wiping off a clip with bullets in it.” Tara heard Jackson tell Cunningham that he was going to “hit a lick,” i.e., rob somebody, and Jackson mentioned Shane Liles.

{¶ 4} In the evening of January 3, Cunningham and Jackson went to Shane’s apartment. Shane was not home, but several family members and friends were there. Shane came home shortly thereafter, and Cunningham told Shane that Jackson wanted to purchase drugs. Shane and Jackson then talked about drugs on the staircase near the living room. While Shane and Jackson talked, Cunningham sat in the living room and watched a movie with teenagers Coron Liles and Dwight Goodloe Jr.

{¶ 5} As Shane and Jackson continued to talk, Cunningham stood up and ordered Coron and Goodloe into the kitchen. When Coron and Goodloe did not immediately obey, Cunningham, who was wearing gloves, pulled out a gun and struck Coron in the face with the gun barrel, breaking his jaw. When Cunningham hit Coron, Jackson pulled out his gun and aimed it at Shane. Coron and Goodloe then ran into the kitchen followed by Cunningham pointing his gun at them. Tomeaka Grant, Armetta Robinson, James Grant, his three-year-old daughter, Jayla, and 17-year-old Leneshia Williams were already in the kitchen.

{¶ 6} Cunningham held the group at gunpoint. The group huddled together against the back wall and tried to shield themselves behind the kitchen table. Cunningham pushed the table and chairs away, locked the back door, and checked the basement for other people. People in the group were crying and praying, and James repeatedly pleaded with Cunningham not to hurt Jayla.

{¶ 7} Meanwhile, Jackson forced Shane upstairs and robbed him of money and drugs. Jackson then tied Shane’s hands behind his back and forced him into the kitchen at gunpoint. In the kitchen, the group was ordered to place money, jewelry, and watches on the table. Cunningham and Jackson grabbed some items from the table and put them into their pockets. Jackson believed that they had more money and asked Shane for the rest. When Shane said that was all he had, Jackson shot Shane in the back.

{¶ 8} Cunningham and Jackson then fired their weapons at the rest of the group. Goodloe testified that he saw Coron’s head “snap back” when Cunningham shot Coron in the mouth. Goodloe also heard Cunningham’s gun fire “numerous times” and saw smoke coming from Cunningham’s gun. Coron testified that Cunningham pointed his gun at him and fired. Coron also saw Cunningham shoot Jayla and Tomeaka. Coron said that both Cunningham and Jackson had fired their weapons, and he saw sparks coming from Cunningham’s gun. Tomeaka saw Cunningham and Jackson pulling the triggers of their guns and heard more than one gun firing. James was holding Jayla when Cunningham pointed the gun and shot him in the face. Once the shooting stopped, the victim heard clicking sounds as Cunningham and Jackson continued pulling the triggers of their guns even after they were out of bullets.

{¶ 9} The deputy coroner determined that Jayla Grant and Leneshia Williams had been killed by gunshot wounds to the head. Jayla was shot twice in the head; either wound would have been fatal. One bullet went through her brain; the other penetrated her scalp, causing a skull fracture and a brain contusion. Leneshia suffered a gunshot wound to the back of her head. The bullet traveled through her brain; she died within seconds of being shot. The coroner recovered no bullets or bullet fragments from the victims during the autopsies and was unable to identify the caliber of the bullets that caused the deaths.

{¶ 10} The surviving victims all suffered gunshot injuries as well. Shane suffered a gunshot wound to his back. Robinson was shot in the back of the head and was in a coma for 47 days. James was shot five times and sustained injuries to his head, arm, and hand. Tomeaka was shot in the head and arm and lost her left eye. Coron was shot in the mouth, lost teeth, and sustained other injuries to his mouth. A bullet grazed Goodloe’s side near his rib.

{¶ 11} Eight spent shell casings and five spent bullets were found at the scene. One fragmented lead core from a full-metal-jacketed bullet was also recovered. One bullet from the shooting was still lodged in Tomeaka’s arm, and Coron testified that he had spit a bullet from his mouth outside the apartment after the shooting stopped. This bullet was never found. Police photographed and recovered a bullet from the front porch of the apartment, but this bullet was subsequently misplaced.

{¶ 12} John Heile, a firearms expert for the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, performed testing on the shell casings and bullets recovered from the scene, but no guns were recovered for testing. Heile was able to identify the spent shell casings and bullets recovered as .380-caliber ammunition. Heile testified that state’s exhibits 10-17 (shell casings) and exhibits 18, 19, 21, and 23 (spent bullets) were all fired from the same semiautomatic pistol. Exhibit 20 was the same caliber and possessed the same general characteristics (e.g., lands and grooves) as the other spent bullets, but Heile could not confirm that it came from the same weapon. In addition, Heile was unable to identify the caliber of exhibit 22 (fragmented lead core) or determine whether it came from the same weapon as the other spent bullets.

{¶ 13} At trial, the defense presented testimony from three witnesses. William Reiff, a local gun dealer, testified regarding the differences between semiautomatic pistols and revolvers. Reiff explained that a semiautomatic weapon is loaded by inserting a magazine (i.e., clip) through the butt of the gun handle. Reiff also testified that a larger weapon, such as a .44-caliber, is “considerably louder” than a .380-caliber weapon and that .44-caliber bullets are much larger than .380-caliber bullets. On cross-examination, Reiff admitted that he did not know which type of gun was used in the shootings. He also acknowledged that a .380-caliber bullet has approximately the same diameter as a .38 bullet and that .38 rounds are generally fired from a revolver.

{¶ 14} Joann Davis and her daughter, Mary, lived next door to Shane’s apartment, and both testified that they did not hear any noises at the time of the shootings. On cross-examination, Joann said that she was taking medication that night for congestive heart failure and a severe back condition. She also verified that there is a concrete firewall between her apartment and Shane’s.

{¶ 15} The defense did not dispute that Cunningham brandished a gun both before and during the shootings. The defense’s theory was that Cunningham’s gun was inoperable and that he had neither planned nor intended to kill anyone. The defense relied heavily on the physical evidence found at the scene in arguing that only Jackson had fired a weapon. At trial, witnesses unequivocally recalled a revolver in Cunningham’s hands and a semiautomatic pistol with a clip in Jackson’s hands. The bullet casings and spent bullets recovered from the scene, except exhibit 22, were all identified as .380-caliber ammunition that is typically fired from a semiautomatic handgun, not from a revolver.

{¶ 16} Cunningham was indicted on two counts of aggravated murder. Count One charged Cunningham with purposely causing the death of Jayla Grant during an aggravated robbery. Count Two charged Cunningham with purposely causing the death of Leneshia Williams during an aggravated robbery. R.C. 2903.01(B). Cunningham was charged with aggravated robbery in Count Three and with six counts of attempted murder in Counts Four through Nine. Cunningham was also charged with having a weapon under disability in Count Ten, but this charge was dismissed.

{¶ 17} The aggravated-murder counts each contained two death-penalty specifications. The first specification charged aggravated murder as part of a course of conduct to kill or attempt to kill two or more persons. R.C. 2929.04(A)(5). The second specification charged aggravated murder during an aggravated robbery and that the murder was committed with prior calculation and design. R.C. 2929.04(A)(7). Firearm and repeat-violent-offender specifications were attached to all counts except Count Ten.

{¶ 18} The jury convicted Cunningham of all charges, the death-penalty specifications, and the firearm specifications. After a penalty hearing, the trial court sentenced Cunningham to death on Counts One and Two consistent with the jury’s recommendation. The trial court imposed consecutive sentences of ten years each for Cunningham’s convictions of aggravated robbery and six counts of attempted murder, plus three-year consecutive sentences for the firearm specifications. Pursuant to R.C. 2941.149, the trial court determined that Cunningham was a repeat violent offender, sentenced him to nine years on each specification, and ordered those sentences to run concurrently with each other but consecutively to the 13-year sentences for Counts Three through Nine.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1361613.html

Derrick Cook Ohio Death Row

Derrick Cook was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a robbery murder. According to court documents Derrick Cook would force the owner of a clothing store into an abandoned building where he was murdered. Cook would then steal from the victim before fleeing. Derrick Cook would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Derrick Cook 2021 Information

Number A228913

DOB 02/17/1956

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 09/11/1990

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Derrick Cook More News

In the morning of October 28, 1989, Frank Shorter, age sixty-eight, disappeared from the store he managed, Sullivan’s Clothing Store in Lockland, Ohio. Two people shopping nearby, Terry Teppe and Tereva Whitt, saw him at the store about 9:00 a.m. that day, but another shopper entering the store around noon did not see him in the store, and called the police. Shorter’s body was found in an abandoned building at 207 Seitz Street in Cincinnati on November 2, 1989, with a lethal gunshot wound to his head.

When Shorter was found, one of his pants pockets was turned inside out, and about $50 was missing from his wallet. Approximately $300 was missing from the cash register at the store. Items of clothing were also missing.

Shortly before 9:00 a.m. on October 28, 1989, Tereva Whitt saw a black man crossing the street outside Sullivan’s. She noticed brown spots on his face, and that he wore an Army-green full-length jacket. At about the same time, Everett Rasnick and Terry Teppe arrived in the vicinity of Sullivan’s. They both saw two black men outside the store. Teppe observed the face of the taller of the two men. The taller man wore what looked like a green Army fatigue jacket. Rasnick saw the men repeatedly during the span of five to eight minutes, and noted that the taller one wore a light green full-length coat.

On the same day, Brenda Tourney looked from a window of her apartment at 303 Seitz Street, Cincinnati, and saw an older white man in a blue suit, followed closely by a black man, walking toward a neighboring abandoned building. The black man was light-skinned and had splotches on his face. A few moments later, Tourney heard what sounded like a car backfiring.

Two persons were passing through the abandoned building on November 2, 1989, and one of them discovered the body of Shorter. The police were notified, and investigated the scene on November 3. They found Shorter lying on his back, his glasses still on his face, with a bullet hole under his chin. He had been bleeding from his nose and mouth, the blood flowing to the floor from his face. An autopsy revealed that Shorter had died from a bullet wound to the head from a gun fired at point-blank range.

Police had no leads in the case until January 11, 1990, when a Cincinnati police officer received a phone call from an individual demanding money for the murder weapon. The next day, the officer received another call, which he taped. The caller said that he had left a bullet from the murder weapon on top of a sign at a Burger King. The officer retrieved the bullet, which was too damaged for police to determine whether it matched the one that killed Shorter. Later, the caller left another bullet in the coin return of a phone booth, and called a different officer with this information. This call, too, was recorded. This bullet matched the one taken from Shorter’s body.

On January 18, 1990, Shorter’s widow, Alma Shorter, received a telephone call from a person wanting reward money for the murder weapon. A subsequent call came at approximately 8:30 p.m. on January 19. Shorter’s son-in-law kept the caller on the line for several minutes, and the call was recorded and traced to a telephone booth at 1601 Main Street. The information was dispatched to two Cincinnati policemen, Officers Terry Meiners and Dennis Luken, who proceeded immediately to that location. Officer Meiners saw defendant, Derrick Cook, leaving the phone booth, wearing an Army-green coat. A woman using an adjacent phone booth identified defendant as having just used the other booth. Officer Lucian Guy, who had been investigating the case, arrived minutes later. Police subsequently searched defendant and found a list of telephone numbers on him. Two of the numbers on this list were connected to the booths where the bullets were found. Cook was placed under arrest.

Defendant was placed in a lineup and identified by Whitt, Tourney, Rasnick and Teppe. All four identified defendant in the courtroom at his trial.

Further evidence was introduced at trial. Sheila Valerius, defendant’s employer, identified defendant’s voice from the recorded phone conversations. Defendant had asked Valerius for a pay advance on October 27, 1989, and she turned him down. Sometime between October 18 and October 31, defendant asked a fellow employee where defendant could obtain a gun. Valerius asked defendant about this conversation and he admitted it. Defendant made a $243.42 payment on his car on October 28, 1989, the day of the murder.

On February 21, 1990, the Hamilton County Grand Jury returned an indictment against defendant, charging him with two counts of aggravated murder with death-penalty specifications, aggravated robbery, and kidnapping. Other specifications included prior conviction and possession of a firearm. Defendant pled not guilty to all charges on February 23, 1990.

A jury found defendant guilty on all counts and specifications on August 17, 1990. Following a mitigation hearing at which neither defendant nor the state produced any further evidence, the jury recommended the sentence of death. The trial judge sentenced defendant to death on the aggravated-murder counts, and two consecutive sentences of fifteen to twenty-five years on the aggravated robbery and kidnapping counts. He received an additional three years for the gun specification. The court of appeals affirmed appellant’s convictions and the death penalty.

https://casetext.com/case/state-v-cook-162

Douglas Coley Ohio Death Row

Douglas Coley was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a carjacking that ended in a murder. According to court documents Douglas Coley would drag the victim, Samar El-Okdi , from her car to an alley where she was fatally shot and Douglas Coley would then steal her car. Douglas Coley would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Douglas Coley 2021 Information

Number A361444

DOB 08/24/1975

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 06/16/1998

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Douglas Coley More News

On December 23, 1996, around 7:30 p.m., David Moore parked his light blue, four-door Ford Taurus at his residence in Toledo. While Moore was unloading his car trunk, a man he later identified as Green asked for directions. As he gave directions, another man appeared, whom Moore later identified as Coley. Moore started to leave, but Green and Coley stood in front of him and displayed small-caliber, shiny, semiautomatic pistols. Coley then told Moore, “Give me your keys.” Moore complied, and Coley told Moore, “Get in the car.” Coley then climbed in behind the wheel, Green got in back behind Moore, and Coley drove the Taurus towards the art museum.

While in the car, Moore asked them to let him go, but neither Green nor Coley responded. Green did tell Moore to “cough up the cash,” and Moore handed Coley $112, which Coley threw on the front seat. Moore noted that Coley was calm and never appeared excited, aggravated, confused, or unsure of himself. After approximately fifteen minutes, Coley pulled into a dark, isolated field and told Moore to get out of the car.

As Moore backed out of the car, Coley shot him in the stomach. After Moore ran away, he heard a car door open and the car wheels spinning, “trying to get out of the mud.” Moore heard somebody chasing him. Other shots were fired, and Moore fell down. Then Moore heard another shot and felt a bullet hit him in the head. He pretended that he was dead, but as his assailant walked away, Moore looked back and thought that Green, who was heavier and taller than Coley, was the one who had just shot him.

Eventually, Moore struggled to his feet, went to a nearby house, and summoned assistance. Police and a medical team responded and took Moore to a hospital. Moore had been shot in the head, stomach, and arms, and twice in the hand. During one operation, a surgeon removed a .25 caliber bullet from Moore’s wrist.

In addition to the bullet from Moore’s wrist, police found two .25 caliber shell casings on Green Street near where Moore had been shot. Evidence established that a gun identified as Coley’s gun had ejected the shell casings found on Green Street and fired the bullet removed from Moore’s wrist.

On an evening shortly before Christmas 1996, Tyrone Armstrong, a cousin of both Coley and Green, saw Coley and Green driving a light blue, four-door Ford Taurus. The Taurus, which Armstrong knew did not belong to either of them, was overheating, so Armstrong helped put water in the car. Before his abduction, Moore had purchased but not installed a new replacement radiator because his Taurus tended to overheat.

That same evening, Armstrong saw Coley and Green with the same .25 caliber semiautomatic pistols that Armstrong had seen each of them previously carry. Armstrong identified State Exhibit 32, a brown-handled pistol with gray duct tape, as the weapon Coley had previously carried, and State Exhibit 33, which had a pearl handle, as Green’s pistol. That evening, Green made up a rap song with the words “I shot him five times and he had dropped.” At one point, Green pointed his gun at Coley and said, “You better never snitch on me.” Coley mimicked the action; pointing his gun at Green, and repeating, “Better never snitch on me.” Penne Graves, Coley’s girlfriend, also recognized State Exhibit 32 as a gun she had seen around her house.

After a few days, Coley and Green abandoned Moore’s Taurus. On December 27, 1996, police recovered Moore’s car in an area near the residence of a girlfriend of Coley. When police found the Taurus, it bore plates that had been stolen from a Mercury Topaz.

Murder of Samar El-Okdi

Samar El-Okdi was found dead in an alley on January 7, 1997. She had last been seen on January 3, 1997. The police traced El-Okdi’s movements on Friday, January 3, 1997, from around 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., but no evidence firmly established exactly where or when she had been abducted. Sometime after 5:00 p.m. that day, El-Okdi left work and told coworkers that she planned to spend the evening at home. She drove her Pontiac 6000 to her apartment, a block from Moore’s residence. Raymond Sunderman, her landlord, saw El-Okdi arrive home sometime between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. El-Okdi’s brother, Samir El-Okdi, recalls that El-Okdi stopped by late that afternoon at the family-owned convenience store for thirty to forty-five minutes. Around 8:00 p.m., El-Okdi dropped film off at the Blue Ribbon Photo store at Westgate Shopping Center.

That same Friday, around 8:45 p.m., Rosie Frusher left a friend’s house at West Grove Place, near the Toledo Art Museum, to use a pay telephone. As Frusher walked outside the house at which she was staying, she heard two gunshots. After she had passed by the house, she saw a car to her left in an alley. The car had “long taillights” (similar to those on a Pontiac 6000) and a license plate number with a zero (unlike El-Okdi’s license number). Frusher saw a black, stocky “man outside the car bending over that had bushy hair.” Another man was sitting in the driver’s seat. Then Frusher walked to the pay phone and talked to her friend for thirty minutes or so, but she did not return the same way she had come earlier. Ameritech records establish that Frusher made this call at 8:41 p.m.

On Saturday, January 4, Christopher Neal, El-Okdi’s boyfriend, discovered that El-Okdi was missing and notified police. El-Okdi’s friends and relatives searched for El-Okdi, hired a private detective, and distributed missing-person flyers. These flyers described El-Okdi, included her photograph, described her car, including the bumper stickers, and listed her last known whereabouts.

That same weekend in Toledo, Armstrong saw Coley driving a gray Pontiac 6000 that he later identified as El-Okdi’s car. On the night his cousins were arrested, Armstrong bought some cigars and two bottles of Alize (an alcoholic beverage) for Green and Coley, which police later found in that Pontiac. Armstrong admitted that Green and Coley had keys and used those keys to drive both the Taurus and the Pontiac.

Later that night, Monday, January 6, Megan Mattimoe, El-Okdi’s friend and coworker, was parked on Scottwood waiting for another friend to distribute the missing-person flyers about El-Okdi. Around 11:15 p.m., Mattimoe saw El-Okdi’s car drive by, which she identified by its dented rear fender and a distinctive bumper sticker, although the license plate was different. While following the Pontiac, Mattimoe used a cellphone to call a friend, who in turn called the police. Mattimoe followed the Pontiac until the driver parked at an apartment complex and two men got out.

After talking with police, Mattimoe and a Toledo detective returned to where the stolen Pontiac was parked. It bore an Ohio license plate, number YRT 022, which had been stolen from another Pontiac 6000 some time before 6:00 p.m. on January 4, 1997. Police staked out the car, using five undercover police vehicles.

After midnight, Green, Coley, and a woman with a baby got into the Pontiac and drove away. Police followed in undercover vehicles and, assisted by marked police cars, forced the Pontiac to stop. Despite being surrounded, Green rammed one car and spun his wheels in an effort to escape. Green and Coley also resisted arrest, and police forcibly removed each of them from the car. Police found a loaded pistol in Green’s coat. When one policeman approached the car, he noticed that Coley, who was sitting in the back seat, had a metallic object in his hand. On the Pontiac’s rear floor, police found a loaded, .25 caliber, brown-handled pistol (Exhibit 32) near where Coley had been sitting.

Inside the trunk, police found a black crochet purse that El-Okdi had with her on January 3 when she disappeared. However, police never found her red wallet and credit cards, which she always carried with her inside the black purse. Police found one of El-Okdi’s license plates underneath the stolen rear plate, and they found her other license plate in the car trunk.

On the afternoon of January 7, police found El-Okdi’s body in an alley behind West Grove Place, where Frusher had heard shots and had seen two men in a car four days earlier. El-Okdi was wearing the same white shirt, black shoes, and black trousers that she wore to work on January 3. At the scene, police found a live .25 caliber bullet and a .25 caliber shell casing near El-Okdi’s body.

The deputy coroner found that El-Okdi had died from a .25 caliber bullet, which the deputy coroner removed from the back of her cerebellum. The bullet had struck her between the eyes and had been fired from a muzzle distance of approximately twelve to eighteen inches. The deputy coroner concluded that El-Okdi did not die immediately.

David Cogan, a firearms expert, examined the .25 caliber bullet removed from El-Okdi’s brain, the .25 caliber bullet removed from Moore’s wrist, three .25 caliber shell casings from the two crime scenes, and Coley’s .25 caliber semiautomatic pistol recovered from the rear floor of El-Okdi’s Pontiac. Cogan concluded that Coley’s pistol was in operating condition and had fired the bullets into Moore and El-Okdi and had ejected the three crime-scene shell casings. After police searched Green’s residence on January 7, 1997, they found an empty box that had contained .25 caliber Remington ammunition.

On January 7, 1997, Coley and Green were arraigned on charges relating to El-Okdi’s stolen Pontiac and the stolen plates. That arraignment was shown on television, and Moore immediately recognized Green and Coley from the television newscast as the men who had kidnapped, robbed, and shot him.

That same week, Coley, Green and their cousin Armstrong were all in jail, although Armstrong was being held on unrelated charges. While Armstrong and Coley were together, Coley hugged him and told him, “I did it but Joe [Green] shouldn’t have snitched on me.” By this comment, Armstrong understood Coley to mean that Coley had shot El-Okdi. Coley also asked Armstrong to lie for him by claiming that Coley had obtained his weapon and the Pontiac from someone named Denny.

On January 16, 1997, a grand jury heard allegations relating to El-Okdi, and returned an indictment of murder, without death-penalty specifications. Coley was reindicted on March 10, 1997, with the grand jury returning an eight-count indictment for the following offenses: Count I, the kidnapping of David Moore, in violation of R.C. 2905.01(A)(2); Count II, the aggravated robbery of David Moore, in violation of R.C. 2911.01(A)(1); Count III, the attempted murder of David Moore, in violation of R.C. 2923.02; Count IV, the aggravated murder of Samar El-Okdi, in violation of R.C. 2903.01(A); Count V, the aggravated murder of Samar El-Okdi, in violation of R.C. 2903.01(B); Count VI, the aggravated murder of Samar El-Okdi, in violation of R.C. 2903.01(B); Count VII, the kidnapping of Samar El-Okdi, in violation of R.C. 2905.01(A)(2); and Count VIII, the aggravated robbery of Samar El-Okdi, in violation of R.C. 2911.01(A)(1). Each count included a firearm specification in violation of R.C. 2941.145. Count III also had a firearm specification under R.C. 2941.146. Each murder count included a specification under R.C. 2929.04(A)(7) that the murder was committed during a kidnapping or robbery.

Coley pleaded not guilty to the charges, and was convicted as charged, and the jury found both that Coley was the principal offender in the aggravated murder and that he committed the offense with prior calculation and design. The trial court later merged the three aggravated murder Counts (IV, V, and VI). After a sentencing hearing, the jury recommended, and the trial judge imposed, a death sentence for the aggravated murder of Samar El-Okdi. In addition to the death sentence, the trial court sentenced Coley to ten years on each of Counts I, II, III, VII, and VIII, to be served consecutively, and sentenced him on the firearm specifications.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1467924.html

Timothy Coleman Ohio Death Row

Timothy Coleman was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the murder of a woman. According to court documents Timothy Coleman would shoot and kill Melinda Stevens to prevent the woman from testifying against him in a drug trafficking case. Timothy Coleman would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Timothy Coleman 2021 Information

Number A328139

DOB 08/23/1969

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 04/16/1996

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Timothy Coleman More News

On the night of January 2, 1996, Melinda Stevens was shot to death in an alley behind Riddle’s Ribs in Springfield, Ohio. Timothy Coleman, appellant, was convicted of her aggravated murder and sentenced to death.

During the previous summer, Stevens had worked as a confidential informant for the Springfield police and made controlled purchases of drugs from suspected drug dealers. On three separate occasions, Stevens made purchases of crack cocaine from Coleman, which were observed and recorded by the police.As a result of these sales, a grand jury indicted Coleman in September 1995 for aggravated trafficking in cocaine and associated possession offenses. Stevens was a material witness to these offenses, but her identity was not listed in the indictment. Colement pled not guilty to these charges.While in jail awaiting trial for these charges, Coleman told his cellmate, James R. White, that he had discovered that Stevens was the one that got him busted and that if he [Coleman] got out on bond, he was going to take care of her.

According to White, Coleman stated that he had a newborn baby, was facing fifteen to forty-five years on the pending drug charges, and couldn’t * * * do that much time in the joint. Coleman had known White for years and asked him to take care of Stevens if White got bailed out first. However, Coleman was released first on October 12. Another inmate, Donovan Hayes, testified that he heard Coleman tell White That if it was her [Stevens] that was responsible for him being here, he would have to do something to her.White was released from jail in mid-November and testified that Coleman again asked him to help take care of Stevens.

They talked about burning down Stevens’s house or the possibility of White shooting her. Early on January 2, 1996, Coleman saw White twice and told White he would pick him up that evening to take care of Stevens, but Coleman never showed up. On January 3, after Stevens had been killed, Coleman told White that he took care of his business.Christopher Holtz testified that he saw Stevens and Coleman on the evening of January 2, 1996 around 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. at Riddle’s Ribs, apparently buying takeout food. Holtz recalled that Coleman was wearing a flannel-type shirt and that Stevens and Coleman left Riddle’s together around the same time Holtz did. Holtz last saw the two alone in a nearby alley.

The weather that evening was cold, windy, and snowing. As Holtz was walking home, he heard shots.Around 7:25 p.m., police and paramedics responded to the alley behind West Pleasant Street near Riddle’s Ribs, the scene of a shots-fired report. They found Stevens lying face up with no pulse or respiration and only minimal heart activity. Although the paramedics took Stevens to the hospital, the coroner later concluded that Stevens had died at 7:20 p.m. on January 2, 1996. Icy rain had fallen that evening, followed by heavy snow and strong winds, thereby hampering investigative efforts.

Coleman frequently visited the house of Fayette Strodes in Springfield. Strodes’s granddaughter, Dana, had a child by Coleman, and Fayette’s son, James Strodes, was Coleman’s friend. Prior to January 2, 1996, Coleman told Fayette several times that he was going to kill [a] black bitch to whom he had sold drugs because she was a drug informant. Vera L. Strodes, Fayette’s daughter, also recalled Coleman discussing his legal problems, saying, he was going to kill her.Hope Strodes, Fayette’s granddaughter, recalled that Coleman visited the Strodeses’ house early on the evening of January 2, and asked her for some bullets. Hope told him that there was a box of bullets on a shelf. Coleman took some bullets, showed Hope a silver gun with a clip, and said, I’m going to go take care of a bitch that set me up.Around 7:30 p.m. that same evening, Coleman stopped in for a few minutes to see Gaskins and told her, I took care of my business. When asked what he meant, Coleman replied, Bloop, bloop, two to the back of the head * * *. The bitch fell like a rock, while demonstrating at the same time what happened by physically falling to the floor.

After January 3, Coleman again talked with Gaskins and disclosed to her that the murder occurred in an alley behind Riddle’s Ribs and that he had slowed down while walking in order to shoot Stevens from behind.After Coleman left Gaskins’s house that night, he went back to the Strodeses’ residence. Hope, Vera, and Fayette all testified that Coleman did not look normal and was nervous. Vera testified that he was wearing a flannel shirt that had cockleburs on it. Coleman told Fayette that he had took care of it. When she asked what, he said Melinda and twice in the head because he couldn’t do that many years.

On January 3, 1996, police interviewed Coleman after advising him of his rights. Coleman asserted to police that sometime after 7:00 p.m. on January 2, Stevens came to the house of Coleman’s daughter, next to Riddle’s Ribs, and asked him for money to buy food for her children. Coleman told her he was not going to give her money, but that he would walk over there and pay it for her. After going to Riddle’s and paying for the food, Coleman stated that he left, did not see Stevens again, and did not know she had been murdered.Coleman later talked with Vera Strodes about the fact that people on the street were saying that he shot Stevens. At first, Coleman denied shooting Stevens, but later admitted to Vera that he did take the bitch out.

While in jail awaiting trial, Coleman described the murder to fellow inmate Antwan Warren, revealing that while he was walking out of the restaurant with Stevens, he slowed down his step and shot her.Dr.

Robert Stewart, a forensic pathologist, concluded that Stevens died as a result of two gunshot wounds, one to the back of her head and one to the base of her neck. The first bullet stopped at the front-left side of her brain. The second bullet shattered the first vertebra and severed her spinal cord, traveled upward into the sinus cavity, and lodged just under the cheek skin.Because the weather stayed cold until mid-January, ice and snow remained on the ground, hampering efforts to secure physical evidence at the murder scene.

One officer estimated that on January 3, there were two inches of ice and four inches of closely packed snow in the alley. Eventually, on January 17, police officers found two spent .380 caliber shell casings near a bloodstain remaining in the alley.A forensic expert identified the two bullets removed from Stevens’s body as either .380 caliber bullets fired from an automatic or semiautomatic firearm, particularly either a Colt government model or a Davis P-380. The Davis P-380 comes either in steel or chrome models. Gunpowder residue on Stevens’s clothing indicated that she had been shot from less than four feet away.

In May 1996, Coleman shared a prison cell with Steven L. Kasler, an inmate at an Ohio correctional center. Coleman told Kasler that he was awaiting trial for killing a drug informant named Melinda Stevens, and that he thought if he killed her * * * he could beat his drug charges. Coleman said he shot Stevens twice in the back of the head using a Davis P-380. He also told Kasler that he shot her in an alley under pretty severe, blizzard conditions because he thought the weather would hamper the investigation. He then disclosed to Kasler that he had gotten rid of his gun and hidden his clothes in a doghouse in Fayette’s back yard.

In fact, police never found the murder weapon, but did recover from the Strodeses’ doghouse a tennis shoe and a flannel shirt identified as clothing that Coleman wore on January 2.

Coleman was indicted in March 1996 for the aggravated murder of Melinda Stevens with prior calculation and design. Count I of the indictment contained a death specification that Coleman murdered Stevens, a witness to an offense, to prevent her from testifying in a criminal proceeding in violation of R.C. 2929.04(A)(8). Count I of the indictment also contained a firearm specification in violation of R.C. 2929.71. Furthermore, the grand jury indicted Coleman for possession of a firearm while under a disability.The trial jury found Coleman guilty on all charges. Following the penalty phase hearing, the jury recommended the death penalty, and the trial court sentenced Coleman to death.

https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20121203924