By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
As a result of a last-minute reprieve from then Gov. Ted Strickland in 2010, Kevin Keith narrowly escaped being executed for a 1994 triple murder. Now Keith’s attorneys have filed paperwork in Crawford County Common Pleas Court that could result in a new trial on those same charges.
Keith was found guilty by a Crawford County Common Pleas Court jury in June of 1994 of shooting to death 24-year-old Marichell Chapman, her 4-year-old daughter Marchae, and Marichell’s aunt – 39-year-old Linda Chapman – in a Bucyrus apartment. Three others, including two young children, were injured.
Judge Nelfred Kimerline sentenced Keith to death at the conclusion of that trial. After an exhaustive appeals process failed to find in Keith’s favor at any level, including a unanimous decision by the Ohio Parole Board rejecting clemency, Strickland commuted Keith’s sentence to life without parole less than two weeks before his scheduled execution.
Keith’s attorneys have filed a motion for leave to file a motion for a new trial. That motion was filed Oct. 31. The motion to leave is required because Keith’s time to submit appeals has expired. If the motion to leave is granted, then a judge may consider whether or not there is sufficient reason to grant a new trial.
“It’s the fifth time he’s ask for such leaves and he’s been denied the four previous times,” Crawford County Matthew Crall said. “We will oppose the leave and file our own motion in a timely fashion.”
Crall had cited the drawn out appeals process and specifically referred to the Keith case when his office agreed to avoid a trial in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without parole in January of 2015 for Donald Hoffman. Hoffman pleaded guilty to four drug-fueled murders on Labor Day Weekend of 2014.
“I think most of the victims’ families remember the Kevin Keith case, and I think they know what those family members went through,” Crall said at the time.
Keith’s defense team says it has a new suspect in the case, a claim made before and rejected in previous appeals. However, this time the defense is also focusing on a scientist who once worked for the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, G. Michele Yezzo. Yezzo’s contributions in the Keith case were her analysis of tire tracks and a license plate imprint in the snow at the apartment complex in Bucyrus where the murders occurred.
Yezzo did not testify in person at Keith’s trial, but her deposition was used. Yezzo’s work is being questioned in several cases as a result of incidents in her personnel file raising questions about the objectivity of her work.
A man convicted of murdering his wife in Norwalk has been granted a new trial because of concerns about Yezzo’s work on his case.
Should Keith be granted a new trial, the possibility exists that the prosecution could again ask for the death sentence should Keith be convicted a second time.