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Thread: Curtis L. Clinton - Ohio Death Row

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    Curtis L. Clinton - Ohio Death Row


    Heather Jackson and her two children, Celina and Wayne.




    Clinton faces death penalty for Sandusky triple murders

    Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a man accused of killing a Sandusky mother and her two children, said Erie County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mary Ann Barylski.

    Curtis Clinton, 41, was indicted today for three counts of aggravated murder for the Sept. 8 deaths of Heather Jackson and her children, Celina, 3, and Wayne, 1, according to the indictment returned by the Erie County grand jury.

    Clinton also was indicted for rape for sexually assaulting Celina Jackson and aggravated burglary for breaking into the John Street home where the mother and children were found, according to the indictment.

    Additionally, he was indicted for two more counts of rape for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old female at his Campbell Street apartment in Sandusky on Sept. 2.

    Erie County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter also filed a request for Clinton to remain in jail without bond, Barylski said.

    http://morningjournal.com/articles/2...1013322559.txt
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    Trial date set in Sandusky triple homicide, rape case

    Accused serial killer Curtis Clinton smiled as he saw some familiar faces in an Erie County courtroom Friday.

    But when he sat down at the defense table to wait for his attorneys, he bowed his head and cried into his hands.

    Across the courtroom, Nick Fee, brother to Clinton’s alleged 23-year-old victim, Heather Jackson, and uncle to her two children, didn’t shift his eyes from the back of the defendant’s head.

    In a brief hearing, mostly spent in judge’s chambers, Erie County Common Pleas Judge Tygh Tone set a trial date for the accused serial killer and rapist.

    On Aug. 5, pending any delays, Clinton will be tried for the deaths of Heather Jackson, Celina Jackson, 3, and Wayne Jackson, 20 months, the sexual assault of the little girl and another rape involving a 17-year-old Clyde girl.

    Until then, barring unforeseen circumstances, he’ll be held at the Erie County jail, where he’s been incarcerated since police arrested him Sept. 10, two days after the murders.

    The Jacksons lived at their John Street home less than a week before Clinton allegedly strangled each of them to death, leaving the mother’s nude body between the mattress and boxspring of her bed and the children dumped in a closet.

    Clinton is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder, each charge carrying with it the possibility of the death penalty.

    He also is charged with multiple counts of rape and one charge of aggravated burglary.

    Two of the rape charges stem from a Sept. 2 incident, in which a 17-year-old Clyde girl told police Clinton strangled her and sexually assaulted her in his Campbell Street apartment.

    She reported the rape Sept. 3, but fearful of retaliation and Clinton’s past, she asked police not to contact him.

    Clinton is accused of killing Jackson and her children a few days later.

    At Friday’s hearing, attorneys discussed pending motions, including a request to appoint a special investigator for the defense and experts who would testify in the death penalty phase of a trial.

    Attorneys are also working to obtain Clinton’s medical records.

    Clinton was released from prison in February after serving 13 years for involuntary manslaughter and assault.

    He was convicted of strangling to death an 18-year-old Fostoria woman in 1997 and leaving her bound and naked in a filled bathtub.

    Clinton appeared in court Friday dressed in jeans and a blue and green checkered shirt.

    As he left the courtroom in shackles, he waved to a woman in the back of the courtroom, who sat on the defense side of the galley with five other people.

    About 25 of Jackson’s friends and family members attended Friday’s hearing sitting on the opposite side of the courtroom, many wearing T-shirts and ribbons in tribute to the victims.

    The next pretrial is set for 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 29.

    http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/2657861
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    Family asks for life sentence

    The family of a mother and two children slain in their Sandusky home last year want prosecutors to abandon the death penalty in the accused killer’s trial.

    Instead, they want Erie County prosecutor Kevin Baxter to offer Curtis Clinton a plea deal: life in prison without parole. They believe this would avoid a lengthy trial scheduled to start at month’s end.

    Clinton, 42, is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 8, 2012, slaying of Heather Jackson, 23, and her two children, Celina, 3, and Wayne IV, 20 months. All three were found strangled to death in Jackson’s John Street home. Jackson’s naked body was found between a mattress and boxspring, while the children’s clothed bodies were found in a bedroom closet.

    Two days later, police arrested Clinton. He was also charged in an unrelated crime — the alleged rape of a 17-year-old Clyde girl — that happened about a week before the homicides.

    Autopsy results later led prosecutors to charge Clinton with an additional count of rape, for allegedly assaulting Celina the night of her death.

    Jackson’s family and friends have diligently attended every court hearing in the case. Jury selection is scheduled to start Monday and last about three weeks, with the criminal trial set for Oct. 28.

    “The trial gets closer and closer, and it’s really stressing me out,” said Jody Lynch, Heather’s mother. “I don’t want to hear what he’s done. But I have to go.”

    Lynch and her husband, Herbert, and Heather’s brother, Nick Fee, have made it clear they want Baxter to offer Clinton life in prison without parole.

    But Baxter has stopped returning their calls, Lynch said. “We haven’t talked to him at all,” she said. “It’s been months.”

    In response to inquires from the Register about his conversations with Heather’s parents, Baxter issued a statement explaining he has “seriously considered” input from Heather’s parents, siblings and the father of her children.

    View the entire statement by downloading the pdf below

    “Taking this into consideration, as well as other aggravating factors, the state is moving forward with the trial,” Baxter said. He issued the statement after getting permission from Erie County Common Pleas Court Judge Tygh Tone, who has issued a gag order in the case.

    Heather’s family has previously talked to the father of Jackson’s children, Wayne Jackson III, 26, as well as his family, Lynch said.

    Calls to Wayne Jackson III’s family on Tuesday went unreturned.

    In prison, Clinton will not survive, Lynch said. “I know he won’t make it in there. And then he’ll suffer like my kids suffered, instead of going into a room and getting a shot, living like us,” she said.

    Erie County taxpayers have already covered the bill for him to remain in jail for too long, she said.

    “There is no justice for me. God forgive me, I want him to suffer,” she said. “I have nightmares every day, of my little one running away from him and trying to get away.”

    Lynch and other family members have started an online petition, at ipetitions.com/petition/heavencouldntwait, to collect signatures in support of dropping the death penalty in the case.

    Related Files:

    Baxter_statement.pdf

    http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/4724556
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    Man set for trial in slaying of Ohioan, her 2 kids

    A northern Ohio prosecutor is proceeding with a potential death penalty case over the strangling of a woman and two children despite their family's request that the defendant be offered a plea deal for life in prison without parole.

    The Sandusky Register (http://bit.ly/16jOjsn) reports the family wants to avoid a lengthy trial.

    Jury selection begins next week for 42-year-old Curtis Clinton. He has pleaded not guilty in the slayings of a 23-year-old woman, her 3-year-old daughter and her 18-month-old son at their Sandusky home in September 2012.

    Attorneys in the case are under a gag order and can't discuss it, but a judge allowed Erie County prosecutor Kevin Baxter to address the death penalty issue. Baxter says he "seriously considered" the family's position but decided to proceed to trial.

    http://www.mariettatimes.com/page/co...sap=1&nav=5018
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    Trial on track to start Oct. 28

    Curtis Clinton’s murder trial remains on track to start Oct. 28.

    Attorneys finished selecting the jury pool Wednesday. A total of 74 people will return to the Erie County Courthouse to see if they’ll be chosen as the final 12 to hear the case against the accused triple murderer.

    If Clinton is found guilty of murder in the deaths of Heather Jackson, 23, and her two children, he could face the death penalty. In a second phase of the trial, the same jurors would decide if he should face the death penalty.

    Clinton, 42, is accused of strangling to death Jackson and her daughter, Celina, 3, and son, Wayne Jr., 20 months, in their John Street home on Sept. 8, 2012.

    He was also charged in the rape of a 17-year-old Clyde girl a week before the homicides, and for the sexual assault of Celina the day she died.

    Erie County Common Pleas Court Judge Tygh Tone will oversee the trial. He said he may conduct a hearing next week to rule on any last-minute motions prosecutors and defense attorneys file before the trial starts. Otherwise, the case will proceed as scheduled.

    The Register plans to stream video of the trial live at sanduskyregister.com.

    Coverage will begin after the final jury members are seated.

    http://www.sanduskyregister.com/arti...micide/4784571
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    Curtis Clinton murder trial begins today

    Accused triple murderer Curtis Clinton heads to trial today.

    If an Erie County jury finds him guilty of murder in the September 2012 deaths of Heather Jackson, 23, and her children, Celina, 3, and Wayne Jr., 20 months, he could face the death penalty.

    Not since 1990 has a potential death case in Erie County proceeded this close to trial.

    That year, Erie County prosecutor Kevin Baxter pursued the death penalty against John Ray Bonds, 56, a Hells Angels member who in 1988 mistook David Hartlaub, 28, for a rival gang member. He shot him 13 times.

    "We actually got to the jury selection stage," Baxter said.

    In the end, Bonds pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    On Aug. 25, 2012, another high-profile death penalty case ended in a plea agreement.

    Kevin Randleman, 52, pleaded guilty to the March 19, 2011, murder of Sandusky police Officer Andrew Dunn. Randleman shot and killed Dunn after the officer stopped him for riding a bicycle without lights.

    Prosecutors intended to take the case to trial - pursuant to the wishes of Dunn's father, Matt Dunn, also a Sandusky police officer - but the proceedings in a competency hearing unexpectedly came to a halt when Dunn agreed to pull the possibility of death off the table.

    Randleman agreed to plead guilty, securing him a spot in prison for the rest of his life.

    Clinton's trial is slated to start with more than 70 jurors arriving at the Erie County Courthouse this morning.

    The case is in Judge Tygh Tone's courtroom, and it is being prosecuted by Baxter and Ohio Attorney General special prosecutor Paul Scarsella, a death penalty expert.

    Clinton, 42, is represented by certified death penalty defense attorney Robert Dixon, of Cleveland, who had also represented Randleman.

    Unlike the Randleman case, however, prosecutors have made it clear they will not offer a plea agreement to Clinton, despite objections from Jackson's parents and siblings.

    Clinton is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and multiple death specifications in the 3 killings.

    In Ohio, aggravating factors must accompany an aggravated murder charge for a defendant to face the death penalty.

    In this case, the alleged crime fits the bill: Clinton is accused of killing 2 children younger than age 13, also during the commission of several other felonies, the most significant of which is the alleged rape of 3-year-old Celina the day of her death.

    These circumstances place the case in the death penalty category if he's found guilty.

    Leading up to the trial, attorneys on both sides have filed dozens of motions - requesting a jury view of the John Street home where Jackson and her children died, as well as a requesting a change of venue because of the vast publicity surrounding the case.

    Tone denied both those requests this week.

    The case is set to start this morning with final jury selection. The 12-person jury could be seated by day's end.

    At the earliest, Tone anticipates opening statements and the 1st witnesses taking the stand Tuesday morning.

    Clinton's criminal history:

    -- January 1987: Curtis Clinton, then 17, forces his way into a Sandusky home and squeezes a woman until she passes out. The woman had refused his sexual advances. He strangles another woman who tries to intervene. Clinton is convicted of felonious assault and sentenced to a year in youth prison.

    -- April 3, 1997: The body of Misty Keckler, 18, is found nude, face-down in a bathtub with her feet and hands bound behind her back in a Fostoria mobile home. Clinton, 27, is arrested and charged in her death.

    -- 1999: Clinton pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter and is sentenced to 10 years in prison after Wood County prosecutors drop a murder charge in exchange for his guilty plea. He receives an additional 3 years for the assault of prison guards in jail while he was awaiting trial.

    -- February 2012: Clinton is released from prison.

    -- Sept. 3, 2012: A 17-year-old Clyde girl tells Sandusky police Clinton strangled and raped her on Sept. 2 at his Campbell Street apartment.

    -- Sept. 8, 2012: The bodies of Heather Jackson and her 2 children are discovered in a John Street home. Jackson's naked body is found lodged between a box spring and a mattress. The bodies of the children are found clothed in a closet. They were all strangled to death.

    -- Sept. 9, 2012: Clinton attempts suicide in a Clyde hotel. His 19-year-old girlfriend calls for help, and paramedics take him to Bellevue Hospital.

    -- Sept. 10, 2012: Sandusky detectives identify Clinton through cell phone records and track him down to Bellevue, where he's taken into custody. He is charged with 3 counts murder and 1 count rape and booked into the Erie County jail, where he has remained since.

    -- Sept. 19, 2012: Clinton is indicted on 3 counts of rape, 5 counts of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary and multiple specifications, including the potential of the death penalty.

    -- July 2013: Jury pool questionnaires are sent out, attorneys start to narrow the pool.

    -- Today: Final jury questioning begins for the start of the criminal trial.

    (Source: The Sandusky Register)
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    Trial starts for slayings of Sandusky woman, her 2 kids

    Testimony has begun in the trial of a man suspected of strangling a Sandusky woman and her two children in September 2012.

    The Sandusky Register reports police officers and friends of the woman testified Tuesday at the trial of 42-year-old Curtis Clinton.

    One officer testified about finding the children's bodies behind boxes in a utility closet.

    Another recounted how the Heather Jackson's body was found under a mattress.

    Clinton has pleaded not guilty in the slayings of the Jackson with her 3-year-old daughter,Celina, and 1-year-old son, Wayne, at a Sandusky home.

    A jury of eight men and four women was selected to hear the case.

    Prosecutors decided to pursue a possible death penalty for Clinton if he is convicted.

    http://www.northwestohio.com/news/st...0#.UnDmflPb1Xg
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    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Day 4: Triple Homicide Trial of Curtis Clinton

    Attorneys and Erie County Common Pleas Judge Tygh Tone spent about two hours Friday morning, taking care of some housekeeping issues in the triple homicide trial.

    With the jury sent home for the weekend Thursday, they discussed final jury verdict forms for the multiple counts of aggravated murder filed against Curtis Clinton, 42, for the killings of Heather Jackson, 23, and her children, Celina, 3, and Wayne Jr., 20 months.

    Page-by-page, attorneys also debated the more than 20 pages of jury instructions to be read by Tone before the 12 people to decide Clinton's fate are sent to deliberate.

    Prosecutors also submitted about 160 pieces of evidence for the jury to consider, including: Rape kits, medical records, DNA samples, forensic reports, police reports, autopsy photos, crime scene photos, a map, ATM and Kroger receipts, a video of a detective's interview with Clinton, 911 calls made to police, hospital surveillance video footage, and a recording of a phone call Clinton made to his mother from the county jail.

    Defense attorneys objected to only two sets of evidence — records related to the 1997 killing of 18-year-old Misty Keckler in Fostoria.

    Clinton was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in her death and spent 13 years in prison.

    His attorneys also objected to evidence related to Clinton's alleged rape of a 17-year-old Clyde girl, six days before Jackson and her children were killed.

    His attorneys say that case should have been tried separately from the aggravated murder charges.

    Clinton appeared briefly in court, and his attorneys asked Tone to dismiss the case for lack of evidence presented by the state during three previous days of testimony.

    But Tone denied the request.

    If the defense calls any witnesses, they'll take the stand Monday morning when the jurors return from the weekend break.

    Prosecutors finished presenting their case Thursday.

    Attorney David Doughten said for now, Clinton doesn't plan to take the stand in his own defense.

    "We have spoken to Mr. Clinton ad nauseam about his right to testy," he said.

    After that discussion and the recommendations from his other two attorneys, Robert Dixon and Kimberly Kendall, who also advised him not to take the stand, Clinton agreed Friday morning.

    "We think that's a wise decision," Doughten said.

    But Clinton still has the right to change his mind.

    If Clinton is found guilty of the aggravated murder charges filed against him, he could face the death penalty.

    The same jury who decides whether he's guilty will be charged with hearing the second phase of the trial, the death penalty phase.

    http://www.sanduskyregister.com/arti...micide/4839491
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Day 5: GUILTY VERDICT: Triple Homicide Trial

    UPDATE 5:13 p.m. — Guilty, on all counts.

    After about 4 1/2 hours of deliberation, the 12-person jury found Curtis Clinton, 42, guilty of five counts aggravated murder, three counts rape, one count aggravated burglary, and on all accompanying specifications.

    The penalty for the aggravated murders includes the possibility of the death penalty.

    The same jury who heard the criminal trial will return for the mitigation phase Sept. 12, to hear evidence and make a recommendation as to whether Clinton should be sentenced to death.

    UPDATE 12:07 p.m. — The jury is out.

    After about two hours of closing arguments Monday morning, Erie County Common Pleas Judge Tygh Tone read the jury their lengthy instructions, sent them to deliberate and ordered them sequestered until they deliver a verdict in the triple homicide case against Curtis Clinton.

    Clinton, 42, accused of killing Heather Jackson, 23, and her two children, Celina, 3, and Wayne Jr., 20 months, faces the death penalty if he's convicted.

    He also is charged with aggravated burglary, the rape of Celina the day she was killed, and the rape of a 17-year-old Clyde girl about five days before allegedly committing the homicides.

    During closing arguments, Erie County prosecutor Kevin Baxter recapped the testimony of the witnesses who took the stand and the 160 pieces of evidence the jury will be able to review.

    Whatever doubt jurors have, whatever other plausible explanations Clinton's attorneys asked them to consider, there's once piece of evidence that can't be explained away: The sample recovered from Celina's genitals that matched Clinton's DNA, Baxter said.

    The jury will decide Clinton's guilt on five aggravated murder charges, three counts rape, one count aggravated burglary and about a dozen accompanying specifications — including those that would state his crimes could merit the death penalty.

    If Clinton is found guilty, the jury will likely break for a week before returning to hear the second phase of the trial, called mitigation, where they would determine whether or not he deserves to suffer capital punishment.

    Click HERE for continued coverage of the Triple Homicide
    To see complete coverage from the first day of the trial, click HERE
    To see complete coverage from the second day of the trial, click HERE
    To see complete coverage from the third day of the trial, click HERE
    To see complete coverage from the fourth day of the trial, click HERE

    http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/4846286
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Clinton claims innocence

    Click HERE to watch Curtis Clinton deny killings

    Serial killer Curtis Clinton, 42, took the stand in his own defense Tuesday morning, claiming his innocence and pleading with jurors to spare his life.

    For an hour and a half, he shared non-linear points about evidence he thought jurors should question, from the odds forensic scientists calculated in analyzing DNA evidence, to his disbelief that someone would believe he could rape and kill a child when he has three of his own.

    Clinton took the stand to make an unsworn statement, exempting him from questioning by both his attorneys and prosecutors, leaving him unchecked to speak to jurors for 90 minutes.

    The members of the three families he victimized, filling half of Erie County Common Pleas Judge Tygh Tone's courtroom, mostly remained quiet, enduring his monologue.

    Security deputies, however, kept a close eye on Nick Fee, brother of murder victim Heather Jackson, 23, and uncle to her two children, Celina, 3, and Wayne Jr., 20 months.

    Fee, who has stared down Clinton during every hearing since the killer was arrested, leaned forward in his seat, rested his arms on the barrier between the galley and the rest of the court, and clasped his hands as Clinton talked.

    The 17-year-old Clyde girl Clinton raped the week before he killed the Jackson family also remained in the courtroom with her parents, and the family of Misty Keckler, an 18-year-old woman Clinton strangled to death in 1997, endured his sentencing hearing for the second time.

    Special prosecutor Paul Scarsella, assisting Erie County prosecutor Kevin Baxter, submitted only a handful of evidence to the jury — autopsy photos of Celina and Wayne, DNA reports, and autopsy reports from the case.

    Clinton's attorneys did not present opening or closing statements or call any of the witnesses to present the case they had prepared in his defense.

    Clinton, they said, asked them not to.

    The jury, now deliberating whether to give Clinton the death penalty, must decide whether the circumstances of the Jackson family's death outweigh all other factors that may have led to Clinton committing the murders.

    In his closing statements, Scarsella submitted there were no such factors — that in Clinton's 90 minutes on the stand, he had presented nothing.

    "What mitigating factors are there?" he said. "The answer to that question, truthfully, there are none."

    During his time on the stand, Clinton told jurors it didn't matter what he decided, he would appeal it.

    "I get to fight," he said.

    http://www.sanduskyregister.com/arti...micide/4898211
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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