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Thread: Hersie R. Wesson - Ohio Death Row

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    Hersie R. Wesson - Ohio Death Row




    Summary of Offense:

    On January 25, 2008, Wesson murdered Emil Varhola and the attempted murder of his 77-year-old wife, Mary, in their Kenmore Boulevard home. Wesson entered the victims' home to steal a gun he could use to shoot his girlfriend, who had broken up with him, prosecutors said. After Wesson told his girlfriend that he was going to get a gun and return to shoot her, she called his parole officer, who along with the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, started looking for him.

    Wesson was sentenced to death on January 24, 2009.

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    March 13, 2009

    A panel of three Summit County judges sentenced an Akron man to death today for the slaying last year of an elderly Kenmore man and the near-fatal stabbing of his wife at the home they had lived in for more than 50 years.

    Hersie R. Wesson, 51, was convicted by the panel Jan. 23 on charges of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, attempted murder and other offenses following an eight-day bench trial.

    Emil Varhola, 81, a World War II combat veteran of battles in the Philippines, was stabbed five times, including three times in the back, family members said.

    His wife, Mary, 77, was stabbed seven times, including once in the heart, but survived the attack on the night of Feb. 25, 2008, by acting as though she were dead.

    She is still recovering from her wounds in a nursing home and addressed the court today in an audio recording made Thursday with the help of a Victim Services advocate.

    Mary Varhola, directing remarks to Wesson in a strong voice, said he ruined everything she and her husband had worked for in their 51 years of marriage.

    ''You think I hit you with a cane?'' she asked in the recording, referring to her actions on the night of the attack. ''Well, I'd like to run with these shoes right up your butt!''

    Prosecutors said that Wesson, who knew the couple from doing odd jobs for them, entered the home looking for a gun so he could shoot his girlfriend.

    The woman called Wesson's parole officer, and he was arrested the following day on South Arlington Avenue by Akron police and the U.S. Marshals Service Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force.

    When Wesson was given the chance to address the court, he said he acted on the night of the stabbings in self-defense — a position he maintained throughout the trial.

    ''I'm sorry somebody got killed and I'm sorry somebody got seriously hurt, but [Mr. Varhola] shouldn't have reached in his pocket. That's why I reacted to that threat,'' he said in his statement.

    To the Varholas and their family members, Wesson said: ''They don't care what I say, but I have family and friends in the back [of the courtroom], and I'd like to say I love you all and I'm sorry for taking you through this nightmare.''

    Common Pleas Judges Thomas A. Teodosio, Brenda Burnham Unruh and Robert M. Gippin heard the case and issued the death sentence after a mandatory hearing to consider whether the aggravated circumstances of the case outweighed the mitigating circumstances.

    Teodosio, the presiding judge, said the panel decided unanimously that the death penalty was warranted.

    When Teodosio informed Wesson that he has the right to an automatic appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, the defendant — dressed in red-striped jail clothes and seated at the defense table — nodded his head in agreement.

    Teodosio also informed Wesson that two appellate death-penalty attorneys will be appointed for him and that he has the right to obtain any documents in the case free of charge.

    http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/41228712.html

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    Wesson's case is scheduled for oral argument today at 9:00 a.m. before the Ohio Supreme Court.

    View live stream here

    State of Ohio v. Hersie R. Wesson, Case no. 2009-0739

    Summit County Court of Common Pleas

    Hersie Wesson of Akron was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to death for the February 2008 stabbing death of 81-year-old Emil Varhola and the attempted murder of Varhola’s wife, Mary, during a robbery of the couple’s Akron home. Wesson waived a jury trial and was found guilty by a three-judge panel of aggravated robbery, attempted murder, and two separate counts of aggravated murder: murder during the commission of another violent felony (aggravated robbery), and murder committed while he was under detention (still serving a term of postrelease control for a prior felony conviction).

    Wesson has appealed his convictions and sentence to the Supreme Court, advancing 12 claims of legal and procedural error during his trial as grounds for the justices to reverse his convictions and/or reduce his death sentence to a term of life imprisonment.

    Among those assignments of error, Wesson’s attorneys argue that:

    The indictment charging Wesson with aggravated robbery was fatally defective because it did not specify that Wesson acted with the required mental state of “recklessness” when he caused serious physical harm to the Varholas while robbing their home. They go on to assert that, because the defective indictment renders Wesson’s aggravated robbery conviction void, it also invalidates both Wesson’s conviction for aggravated murder during the commission of aggravated robbery, and the death penalty specification for felony murder.

    Defense counsel also argue that Wesson’s second aggravated murder conviction and the death penalty specification that he killed Varhola while under detention must be reversed because the trial court that sentenced Wesson on a 2003 burglary charge failed to include a mandatory term of postrelease control in his sentence for that offense, rendering the discretionary postrelease control sentence the court did impose a legal nullity. They go on to assert that, in the absence of a valid conviction for aggravated murder under either a theory of felony murder or murder committed while he was under a lawful sentence of detention, Wesson can only be found guilty of (non-aggravated) murder, a crime for which the death penalty may not be imposed.

    Wesson also asserts that his trial was structurally defective and therefore invalid because the judge assigned to hear his case selected the other two judges who served on the three-judge panel that convicted him, contrary to the requirement of R.C. 2945.06 that when a defendant elects to be tried by a three-judge panel, the other two judges are “to be designated by the presiding judge or chief justice of that court.”

    Arguing for the state, attorneys from the Summit County prosecutor’s office respond that:

    Wesson was indicted on two separate counts of aggravated robbery, one of which specified that he had acted “recklessly” in causing serious physical harm to the Varholas during a theft offense and the other of which did not require a culpable mental state because it was a “strict liability” charge that alleged the use of a deadly weapon in committing a theft offense. They assert that although the trial court merged the aggravated robbery count that specified a “reckless” mental state with the other count when it convicted Wesson, the language of the indictment was proper, and it is clear that the grand jury considered and found all the elements of aggravated robbery, and that Wesson was duly advised prior to trial of the elements of that crime the state would seek to prove at trial.

    The state concedes that, under 2009 and 2010 Ohio Supreme Court decisions voiding improperly imposed terms of postrelease control, Wesson was not serving a lawful sentence of detention at the time he killed Varhola, and therefore the aggravated murder count and death penalty specification that he killed while under detention must be vacated. They argue, however, that the dismissal of those counts does not invalidate the trial court’s lawful conviction of Wesson or his sentence of death for aggravated murder based on the commission of murder in the course of another violent felony.

    The prosecution points out that Wesson raised no objection to the procedure used by the trial court in appointing the other two members of the three-judge panel, and that he and his attorneys signed a written waiver specifically acknowledging that the judge presiding over his trial would select the other panel members. They point to the Ohio Supreme Court’s 1996 statement in State v. Eley that under R.C. 2945.06 either the judge presiding over a capital case or the presiding or chief judge of that court may appoint the other members of a three-judge panel, and argue that even if Eley inadvertently misstated the law, the trial judge in Wesson’s case was entitled to follow Eley as controlling precedent − and after expressly agreeing to that procedure at the time it was implemented, Wesson may not later raise it on appeal as grounds to throw out the results of his trial.
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    Ohio Supreme Court upholds death sentence in 2008 Akron murder case

    The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence of Hersie R. Wesson for the aggravated murder of an 81-year-old Akron man and the attempted murder of his wife.

    Wesson, now 56, was convicted of the crimes in 2009 and sentenced to death by a panel of three Summit County judges after he had waived his right to a jury trial.

    The attack on the elderly couple, who knew Wesson by his neighborhood nickname “Ray-Ray,” occurred in February 2008 in the home they had lived in for more than 50 years.

    Emil Varhola, a World War II veteran of the Pacific Theater, was stabbed five times, according to victim impact statements at Wesson’s sentencing.

    Mary Varhola, who was 77 at the time of the attack, survived by feigning death after being stabbed seven times.

    In Wesson’s Supreme Court appeal, he argued that the judge presiding over his trial lacked authority to appoint the other two members of the panel.

    Justice Terrence O’Donnell agreed, noting in the majority decision that although the judge who made the choices presided over the trial itself, he was not the presiding judge of the Common Pleas court or the high court’s chief justice, as Ohio law demands.

    That error, however, was not sufficient to void Wesson’s death sentence, O’Donnell wrote, because Wesson made no appellate argument “that the appointment of different members to the three-judge panel would have changed the outcome of the proceeding.”

    Wednesday’s ruling did overturn one aggravated murder conviction, based on a specification for committing the crime while on probation, for a judge’s failure to impose the proper terms of probation when Wesson was sentenced on a 2003 burglary conviction.

    Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger wrote a dissent, stating that the majority opinion was inconsistent in its findings.

    “Apparently, a postrelease control error is more important [in reversing a conviction] than a procedural error in a capital case. I cannot agree with this inconsistency,” Lanzinger wrote. “I would hold that any error in the court’s exercise of jurisdiction is voidable…’’

    Based on the error over the presiding judge, Lanzinger wrote that she would have vacated Wesson’s capital murder convictions and sent the case back to Summit County “for the proper selection of a three-judge panel in this case as precedent demands.”

    Wesson is awaiting imposition of the death penalty at Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

    http://www.ohio.com/news/ohio-suprem...-case-1.439223
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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Wesson's petition for writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis was DENIED.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/13-9469.htm

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    On December 9, 2014, Wesson filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/ohi...cv02688/213854

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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Wesson's petition for writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis was DENIED.

    Lower Ct: Court of Appeals of Ohio, Summit County
    Case Numbers: (28412)
    Decision Date: March 7, 2018
    Discretionary Court Decision Date: July 5, 2018
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    Article

    U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear sentencing appeal of death row inmate from Akron


    The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the case of an Akron man sentenced to death for the aggravated murder of an 81-year-old Akron man and the attempted murder of his wife.

    Hersie R. Wesson, 61, however, still has several other appeals pending in the state and federal courts.

    Wesson was convicted of the attack of an elderly couple, who knew Wesson by his neighborhood nickname “Ray-Ray,” that happened in February 2008 in the home they shared for more than 50 years.

    Emil Varhola was stabbed five times. Mary Varhola, who was 77 at the time, survived by feigning death after being stabbed seven times.

    Wesson was convicted of the crimes in 2009 and sentenced to death by a panel of three Summit County judges after he had waived his right to a jury trial.

    https://www.ohio.com/news/20181211/u...-akron?start=2
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    On March 23, 2020, Wesson’s case was remanded to state court for a hearing on Wesson’s ID claim.

    https://dockets.justia.com/docket/oh...cv02688/213854
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    The Sixth Circuit has denied Wesson’s petition to expand COA.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/federal...021-03-12.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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