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Hersie Wesson Ohio Death Row

Hersie Wesson was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the murder of an elderly man. According to court documents Hersie Wesson would talk himself into the home of Emil Varhola, 81, and Mary Varhola, 77. Once inside Hersie Wesson would stab Emil to death and attempted to murder Mary before robbing the home and fleeing. Hersie Wesson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Hersie Wesson 2021 Information

Number A563308

DOB 09/21/1957

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 03/23/2009

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Hersie Wesson More News

The Ohio Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence imposed on Hersie R. Wesson for stabbing 81-year-old Emil Varhola to death in February 2008 during a course of conduct that involved the attempted murder of Emil’s 77-year-old wife, Mary, and the aggravated robbery of the elderly couple in their home.

Justice Terrence O’Donnell wrote the court’s majority opinion reviewing Wesson’s convictions and sentence in this case.

The decision partially affirms and partially reverses the judgment of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas.

In February 2008, Hersie R. Wesson of Akron asked Emil Varhola, 81, and Mary Varhola, 77, if he could wait at their house until his girlfriend’s bus arrived. The Varholas knew Wesson from the neighborhood, and Mr. Varhola and Wesson sometimes talked. The couple accommodated Wesson’s request. Wesson attacked and stabbed Mr. Varhola, beat and stabbed Mrs. Varhola, then stole jewelry and money before fleeing the house.

Wesson waived his right to a jury trial and elected to be tried by a three-judge panel. The judge presiding over the case appointed the other two members of the panel, and the matter proceeded to trial. The panel found Wesson guilty of two counts of aggravated murder, with each count carrying capital specifications for aggravated murder while under detention, aggravated murder as part of a course of conduct involving the purposeful killing of or attempt to kill two or more persons, and aggravated murder while committing aggravated robbery, in addition to two counts of attempted murder, two counts of aggravated robbery, and one count each of having a weapon while under a disability and tampering with evidence. The court sentenced Wesson to death for aggravated murder and to 26 years in prison for the other convictions.

On appeal to the Supreme Court, Wesson urged that the judge presiding over his trial had lacked authority to appoint the other two members of the three-judge panel. Justice O’Donnell noted that pursuant to R.C. 2945.06, when a person charged with a capital offense waives a jury trial, the panel hearing the case shall be composed of three judges, two of whom shall be designated by the presiding judge or chief justice of the common pleas court, and if no one holds either position, then they shall be designated by the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Justice O’Donnell wrote that the term “presiding judge” refers to the judge who is the presiding judge over a multiple-judge common pleas court, not the judge presiding over a particular trial. “If the General Assembly had intended to allow the judge assigned to preside over a capital murder trial to appoint the other two judges of the three-judge panel, then there would be no need to designate the chief justice of the Supreme Court to appoint the judges when there is neither a presiding judge nor a chief justice of the common pleas court, because there would always be a judge presiding over the capital case,” Justice O’Donnell stated.

“Accordingly, the judge presiding over Wesson’s trial, who was neither the presiding judge nor the chief justice of the Summit County Common Pleas Court, lacked authority to designate the other two members of the panel,” Justice O’Donnell continued. The court, however, rejected Wesson’s argument that his conviction and death sentence should be overturned for this error , noting that he had accepted the trial court’s method of appointing the members of the three-judge panel and forfeited all but plain error. “[H]ere, Wesson makes no argument — and therefore does not demonstrate — that the appointment of different members to the three-judge panel would have changed the outcome of the proceeding.”

Wesson also challenged his conviction for committing aggravated murder while under detention and his convictions for specifications charging that he committed aggravated murder while under detention .

Wesson had been convicted of burglary in 2003 , and the trial court had imposed a three-year discretionary term of postrelease control rather than the mandatory term required by his offense. He was placed on postrelease control upon his release from prison in 2007.

Justice O’Donnell noted that “Wesson’s 2003 sentence failed to impose a mandatory three-year term of postrelease control, and so that part of the 2003 sentence is void.” He further explained that pursuant to State v. Billiter (2012), an offender cannot be convicted of escaping from an improperly imposed term of postrelease control. The court therefore reversed Wesson’s conviction for committing aggravated murder while under detention, the related specifications on this count, and a separate specification for committing murder while under detention on the other aggravated murder count.

The Supreme Court also rejected Wesson’s claims that the indictment was invalid, that his statement to police should have been suppressed, that he had been denied the effective assistance of counsel and the right to present a complete defense, that he had been convicted of allied offenses of similar import, that the admission of victim-impact statements amounted to reversible error, and that the death penalty is unconstitutional. The court then independently reviewed the sentence of death imposed and concluded that the evidence supports the finding that Wesson committed aggravated murder as part of a course of conduct and while committing aggravated robbery. Concluding that these aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating factors and that Wesson’s death sentence is proportionate to those upheld in similar cases, the court affirmed the sentence of death.

The court’s majority opinion was joined by Justices Paul E. Pfeifer and Sharon L. Kennedy and by Joseph J. Vukovich of the Seventh District Court of Appeals. Judge Vukovich served as a visiting judge during oral arguments in this case, filling in for Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, who recused herself.

Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger wrote a dissent. Justice Judith L. French wrote separately to concur in part and dissent in part. Justice William M. O’Neill dissented without opinion.

In her dissent, Justice Lanzinger wrote: “I would not find void any portion of Wesson’s 2003 sentence. As the mistake was solely in the court’s exercise of jurisdiction in imposing postrelease control (imposing three years of discretionary, rather than three years of mandatory, postrelease control), the sentence was merely voidable. Since the error was not raised on appeal within 30 days, res judicata applies and Wesson remained under the supervision of the Adult Parole Authority. I also dissent from the majority’s judgment affirming the remaining capital convictions. I would vacate the convictions and remand the case to the trial court for the proper selection of a three-judge panel in this case as precedent demands.”

“[T]he majority’s opinion in this case is yet another example of the inconsistent holdings of this court in cases in which the trial court judge acted contrary to a statutory mandate,” she continued. “The majority reverses Wesson’s conviction for aggravated murder while under detention and for the corresponding specification on Count Two due to a postrelease-control error. So on the one hand, the majority collaterally declares a portion of Wesson’s 2003 sentence void because the trial judge imposed three years of discretionary rather than mandatory postrelease control. Then on the other hand, although the trial judge did not have authority to appoint the other two judges of the three-judge panel in this capital case, the majority affirms Wesson’s remaining capital convictions. Apparently, a postrelease-control error is more important than a procedural error in a capital case. I cannot agree with this inconsistency. I would hold that any error in the court’s exercise of jurisdiction is voidable rather than void.”

Justice French concurred with the majority in all aspects except vacating Wesson’s conviction and specifications for aggravated murder while under detention. She wrote that she agrees with Justice Lanzinger that his 2003 sentence was not void.

http://www.courtnewsohio.gov/cases/2013/SCO/1023/090739.asp#.YGN5TijYrrc

James Were Ohio Death Row

James Were was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a prison murder. According to court documents James Were was involved in a prison riot (lucasville) that left a prison officer dead. James Were would be convicted and sentenced to death

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

James Were 2021 Information

Number A173245

DOB 01/20/1957

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 04/15/1983

Institution Ohio State Penitentiary

Status INCARCERATED

James Were More News

On Easter Sunday, April 11, 1993, 450 Lucasville inmates, including an unlikely alliance of the prison gangs: Gangster Disciples, Black Muslims and the Aryan Brotherhood, rioted and took over the facility for 11 days. The prisoners’ main concerns were serious overcrowding and mismanagement of the facility and Muslim frustration stemming from mandated tuberculosis testing.^[5] In the Netflix documentary series Captive, inmate Siddique Abdullah Hasan (Carlos Sanders) claims that Muslim prisoners refused the test because it contained phenol, and therefore went against Islamic restrictions concerning the handling and consumption of alcohol. Investigations conducted after the riot found that the gangs were also collaborating to murder inmates accused of being informants.^[6] One corrections officer and nine inmates were killed during the riot.^[6] Five inmates believed to have been informants were beaten to death at the start of the riot. Two inmates were repeatedly stabbed to death and a third had paper and plastic stuffed into his mouth before being strangled to death by cords.^[3]

During negotiations, the inmates did not feel they were being taken seriously and there was discussion of killing a corrections officer in retaliation. Though the group never reached a decision on the killing, one of the prisoners decided to act. According to the prosecution, Officer Robert Vallandingham, who had been taken hostage, was handcuffed and strangled with a dumbbell from the prison weight room. However, testimony by Dr. Richard Fardal, Franklin County Deputy Coroner, disputed the claim that Officer Vallandingham was killed by a weight, saying that there was “no injury to the voice box or the trachea” and that “Mr. Vallandingham died solely and exclusively as a result of ligature strangulation.” Testimonies vary as to which prisoner was responsible for his murder.^[5] During those 11 days, representatives from the Gangster Disciples, Black Muslims and Aryan Brotherhood, met every day in an improvised leadership council.^[7]

The riot eventually ended after 11 days on April 21. Prison officials agreed to review the prisoners’ complaints, which resulted in the prisoners’ surrender.^[3]

Communications issues experienced during the response to the riot contributed to the state’s decision to build an interoperable statewide radio system.

Michael Webb Ohio Death Row

Michael Webb was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the murder of a three year old boy. According to court documents Michael Webb would set off a fire in his home that would end up taking the life of his three year old son. Michael Webb would be sentenced to death.

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Michael Webb 2021 Information

Number A246589

DOB 11/08/1948

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 07/17/1991

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Michael Webb More News

Webb lived in a modest home in Goshen, Ohio, with his wife Susan, two teenage daughters, Tami and Amy, and two young sons, Charlie and Mikey. State v. Webb, 70 Ohio St.3d 325, 638 N.E.2d 1023, 1026 (1994). Early on the morning of November 21, 1990, Tami awoke in her basement bedroom to the smell of gasoline. Id. at 1027. Webb soon came into her room and told a frightened Tami that he smelled gasoline and that he thought someone had “rigged” the house. Id. Without telling Tami to get out of the house, Webb proceeded upstairs while Tami hid under her covers. Id.

Soon after Webb went upstairs, an explosion occurred on the main floor of the house, throwing Webb from the hall outside the master bedroom into the bathroom. Id. at 1027-28. Webb’s wife and youngest son were asleep in the master bedroom at the time, and Mikey slept in his bedroom across the hall. Id. Tami and Amy safely escaped the resulting fire through the exterior basement door as soon as they heard the explosion. Id. at 1027. Webb escaped the house by breaking through the bathroom window, cutting himself and bloodying his hands in the process. Id. Firefighters rescued Webb’s wife and youngest child from the master bedroom. Id. Mikey died from smoke inhalation, apparently while hiding under his bed to seek refuge from the flames. Id.

Law enforcement investigated the cause of the fire. Fire Chief Murphy discovered a plastic gasoline can from Webb’s garage in the front foyer as well as a “very definite pour pattern or trailer” leading down the hallway from the foyer to the main floor bedrooms. Id. From there, trailers led into both bedrooms, including over Mikey’s bed to the rear wall of his bedroom. Id. An unignited gasoline trailer also led downstairs to the basement, where gasoline had been poured on Tami’s and Amy’s beds. Id. Several pieces of physical evidence linked Webb to the fire: a two-liter soda bottle containing gasoline found downstairs, which had Webb’s fingerprints on it; Webb’s partial bloody fingerprints on a matchbook outside, with the prints corresponding to the “peculiar way” Webb held a matchbook when lighting matches; and a plastic gas can from Webb’s garage found in the foyer. Id. Webb, it turns out, had a motive as well: He began an extramarital affair in 1990 and told his mistress he planned to leave his wife so he could be with her, id.; and he had just finished draining $102,000 (plus interest) from his daughters’ trust accounts within the past year, a theft that would be hidden by their deaths because he was their heir.

An Ohio jury convicted Webb of the aggravated murder of Mikey and eleven other counts not relevant to this appeal. Id. After a mitigation hearing, the jury recommended the death penalty, and the trial court agreed.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1499044.html

Michael Webb Death

A condemned Ohio prisoner scheduled for execution next year for killing his 3-year-old son in an arson fire has died of a heart attack, the state said.

Michael Webb, 73, was sentenced to die for setting a 1990 fire at his Clermont County house in southern Ohio. Authorities said Webb meant to kill his wife and children and collect insurance money to be with his mistress.

Records show the family escaped but his son, also named Michael, died of smoke inhalation. At the time of his sentencing, Webb did not dispute the fire was arson, but denied being the one to start it.

Webb died of cardiac arrest at a Columbus hospital May 2, said JoEllen Smith, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Webb was scheduled to die in July 2023, though the likelihood of that happening was small. Gov. Mike DeWine has postponed multiple executions in recent years in keeping with his contention that lethal injection is no longer an option in Ohio because of the ongoing lack of drugs with which to put inmates to death.

The state’s last execution was July 18, 2018, when Ohio put to death Robert Van Hook for killing David Self in Cincinnati in 1985.

https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/ohio-death-row-inmate-dies-heart-attack-ahead-next-years-scheduled-execution/530-ba6effa4-6ac1-41dc-9a1c-873885333165

Warren Waddy Ohio Death Row

Warren Waddy was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the murder of a woman during a robbery. According to court documents Warren Waddy would break into the victims home where she was tied up and murdered. Evidence also points to Warren Waddy breaking into other homes where the female victim would be sexually assaulted. Warren Waddy would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Warren Waddy 2021 Information

Number A199737

DOB 12/19/1953

Gender Male Race Black

Admission Date 11/10/1987

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Warren Waddy More News

A Death Row inmate from Franklin County argued yesterday that his sentence should be commuted to life in prison because he is mentally retarded.

Twenty-one years after his murder conviction, Warren Waddy was back in a Columbus courtroom.

He was granted the new hearing by the Court of Appeals, which ruled two years ago that Waddy might have a claim for relief based on a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned executions of the mentally retarded.

Waddy’s IQ is borderline and he has a fourth-grade education, a psychologist has said.

The hearing before Common Pleas Judge John P. Bessey would not affect Waddy’s convictions for strangling Paula Mason in 1987, but it could take him off Death Row. He has filed numerous appeals from the Mansfield Correctional Institution

The hearing will resume on Monday.

In court briefs, prosecutors argue that three mental-health exams have shown no evidence that Waddy is mentally retarded. At least 26 Death Row inmates have filed appeals based on the higher court’s ruling.

A jury found that Waddy burglarized Mason’s East Side apartment on July 18, 1986, bound her hands and feet, and killed the 22-year-old woman with a red jump-rope. He also was convicted of breaking into two other homes where he raped one woman and stabbed another.

Waddy terrorized the women by placing a pillowcase or sheet over their heads and beating them while he ransacked their belongings, Assistant County Prosecutor Steven L. Taylor wrote in court briefs. Waddy, who is now 55, is a former cab driver and welder.

Columbus psychologist Jeffrey Smalldon testified for the defense yesterday that evidence of “mild brain impairment” and emotional disorders were apparent in 1995, when he first evaluated Waddy. School records show Waddy once was considered “mildly retarded” and “slow,” Smalldon said.

But Smalldon also testified that Waddy’s IQ of 83 was above the normally accepted value for mentally retarded people, which is 70. He learned that Waddy helped raise a daughter and five nieces, kept his own apartment and once held sway over a $500-a-day drug trafficking operation.

In opposing the motion to set aside the death sentence, Taylor wrote, “Menial labor and poor academic skills are not an indication of (mental retardation) in those circumstances but rather a reflection of antisocial traits.”

A Kentucky man convicted of fatally beating a 10-year-old Cincinnati boy was the first Ohio inmate saved by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Darryl Gumm was ruled to be mentally retarded in 2006.

Bessey told defense attorneys W. Joseph Edwards and Kort Gatterdam that he will issue a written ruling in the case

https://www.dispatch.com/article/20090124/news/301249723

Raymond Twyford Ohio Death Row

Raymond Twyford was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a robbery murder. According to court documents Raymond Twyford and Daniel Eikelberry would lure the victim Richard Franks to a remote location where he was tortured, shot several times, had his hands cut off and then his wallet stolen. Raymond Twyford would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Ohio Death Row Inmate List

Raymond Twyford 2021 Information

Number A275069

DOB 10/15/1962

Gender Male Race White

Admission Date 04/12/1993

Institution Chillicothe Correctional Institution

Status INCARCERATED

Raymond Twyford More News

In the early evening hours of September 23, 1992, Athena Cash was walking in a rural area in Jefferson County, Ohio. After traversing the crest of a hill, Cash noticed an object floating in an old strip-mining pond. Although it appeared to be in the shape of a human body, Cash was uncertain whether the object was, in fact, human. Cash subsequently summoned her boyfriend to view the object, and he concluded that the object was a human body. As a result, the couple contacted local law enforcement authorities.

Law enforcement personnel, including Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla, responded to the scene and found parts of a skull and flesh on the ground. Some seventy-four feet away, the sheriff saw a body lying on its back in the body of water. On the shore, the sheriff also found blood, a pair of glasses, a baseball cap, and six shell casings fired from a .30-06-caliber rifle.

While the body was floating in the pond, Sheriff Abdalla observed that it appeared “as if the head was cut off” and also noticed that “the hands were severed from the body.” Once the body was removed from the water, it was determined that part of the face was still attached but that the skull was missing. Abdalla also discovered that the victim had been shot in the back. At the scene, Dr. John Metcalf, the Jefferson County Coroner, observed the same injuries. In addition, Dr. Metcalf found a pocket calendar diary inside the victim’s shirt pocket. The victim’s name, Richard Franks, as well as a Windham, Ohio address, was written in the diary.

On September 24, 1992, after contacting the Windham Police Department and receiving information that Franks had been missing for two days, Sheriff Abdalla traveled to the village of Windham in Portage County, Ohio. Prior to Sheriff Abdalla’s arrival, Windham Chief of Police Thomas Denvir decided to place Franks’s apartment under surveillance. Chief Denvir had discovered that Daniel Eikelberry lived with Franks, and while surveilling the apartment, Chief Denvir observed Eikelberry and Raymond A. Twyford III, appellant, in an automobile belonging to Joyce Sonny, appellant’s girlfriend.

Sheriff Abdalla arrived in Windham and at approximately 4:50 p.m. met local police officials, including Chief Denvir. Around 5:30 p.m. that same afternoon, while Sheriff Abdalla and Chief Denvir waited outside Franks’s apartment for a warrant to enter the premises, appellant, accompanied by Eikelberry and Terri Sonny, Joyce’s daughter, again drove by in Joyce Sonny’s car. Appellant lived with Joyce Sonny and her daughters, Christina, age eighteen, and Terri, age thirteen, in Windham.

At that time, and at Sheriff Abdalla’s request, Chief Denvir stopped the car to talk with Eikelberry about his missing roommate, Franks. As appellant got out of Joyce’s 1975 Chrysler sedan, Abdalla noticed “two survival knives, a hatchet and a small * * * hand saw” in the car. Appellant, who was not detained, waited outside Franks’s house while Abdalla questioned Eikelberry at the police station.

After interviewing Eikelberry, Sheriff Abdalla arrested appellant at around 6:25 p.m. for the murder of Richard Franks and advised appellant of his Miranda rights. After declining to be interviewed, appellant was taken to the Windham Police Department and held while police continued to question Eikelberry. At around 7:15 p.m., appellant on his own initiative indicated that he would like to speak to Sheriff Abdalla and told him, “[S]heriff, I want to talk to you now, I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” Sheriff Abdalla, however, did not talk to appellant right away. Around 8:30 p.m., Abdalla again advised appellant of his Miranda rights, and appellant acknowledged and waived those rights, both orally and in writing.

Appellant told Sheriff Abdalla and Chief Denvir that he lived with Joyce Sonny and her two daughters, Christina and Terri. On Saturday, September 19, two days prior to the murder, Eikelberry told appellant that Franks had raped Christina. After learning this, appellant said that he was very angry and that every time he thought of Franks or saw him he “saw red and started to shake.”

Appellant told Sheriff Abdalla that after learning of the rape, he and Eikelberry decided to kill Franks. The two of them drove around with Franks on Sunday evening, September 20. Appellant said, however, that he and Eikelberry could not find a suitable place to kill Franks. On Monday evening, September 21, on the pretext that they were going deer hunting, appellant, Eikelberry, and Franks drove to Jefferson County, arriving at around 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., September 22. Appellant was familiar with the area and had suggested this as the locale for the killing.

According to appellant, he and Eikelberry told Franks to hold a flashlight, look for deer, and “hold the light in the eye of the deer,” and appellant and Eikelberry would shoot the deer. Instead, as Franks walked off and was ten to twelve feet away, appellant shot him in the back with a .30-06-caliber rifle. After he fell down, Franks was still “gurgling,” and Eikelberry shot Franks in the head with a .22 caliber pistol.

Appellant and Eikelberry then repeatedly shot Franks in the head with the rifle and also shot his hands. Appellant also “took the wallet from Mr. Franks” and handed it to Eikelberry, and Eikelberry removed the hunting license from Franks’s jacket. “[A]fter they [Eikelberry and appellant] had cut [Franks’s] hands off, they took the hands and put them in a * * * cowboy boot and * * * put some rocks in the boot to weigh it down and * * * [ran] the extension cord * * * around the boot.” They shot Franks several times “to disfigure him so he couldn’t be recognizable.” Then “they both [dragged] the body * * * to the embankment * * * [and] shoved the body over the bank.”

Appellant further said that after leaving the scene of the murder, Eikelberry threw the boot containing Franks’s hands into Yellow Creek (some eighteen miles away). On September 25, divers recovered the boot (which contained the hands) from Yellow Creek where appellant reported that it had been thrown.

After he orally confessed to the murder, appellant wrote out details in a three-page handwritten statement that he signed. Chief Denvir and Sheriff Abdalla witnessed appellant’s statement.

Based upon other information from appellant’s confession, police recovered from behind a vent off Joyce Sonny’s living room a loaded “high-powered” .30-06-caliber rifle and a .22 caliber handgun loaded with “hollow point” ammunition. Two knives were also found. Both guns were operable. A parole officer verified that appellant had previously been convicted of burglary and hence was “restricted from owning, possessing or using any type of firearm.”

The grand jury indicted appellant on five counts. Count One alleged aggravated murder with prior calculation and design in violation of R.C. 2903.01(A) and aggravated murder in the course of a kidnapping in violation of R.C. 2903.01(B). Count One of the indictment also charged appellant with an R.C. 2929.04(A)(7) death penalty specification for committing aggravated murder during the course of a kidnapping. Count Two alleged an aggravated murder with prior calculation and design in violation of R.C. 2903.01 and aggravated murder in the course of aggravated robbery in violation of R.C. 2903.01(B). Count Two also charged appellant with an R.C. 2929.04(A)(7) death penalty specification of committing aggravated murder during the course of committing an aggravated robbery. Count Three alleged kidnapping, Count Four alleged aggravated robbery, and Count Five alleged that appellant had a weapon while under disability. Counts One through Four contained gun specifications. Counts Three and Four also contained specifications enhancing the penalty, and these alleged that appellant had previously been convicted of burglary.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/oh-supreme-court/1184686.html