By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Contentiousness has marked each day of the Saunders case, but Wednesday showed a drastically different side as Frederick Saunders, Jr. pleaded guilty in the death of his father.
The morning started off with a hearing on a competency evaluation for 36-year-old Saunders, of Galion. The request was made by defense attorney Adam Stone and the evaluation was being handled by a doctor from Cleveland. Though the report was completed, it was not presented to the court. Instead, Stone stated the doctor declared Saunders competent to stand trial and the attorney withdrew his motion.
Despite those results, Crawford County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean Leuthold reviewed Saunders’ ability to understand what was going on, asking him about the roles of the judge, prosecutor, jury, and defense attorney. Saunders replied in well-spoken, concise answers.
The competency was only the first step in Wednesday’s court proceedings. Leuthold ordered a recess while Stone presented a plea agreement to Saunders.
“Take all the time you want. This is a very important decision,” Leuthold said.
After being sequestered 45 minutes with his attorney, Saunders returned to court to plead guilty to an amended charge of voluntary manslaughter and kidnapping, both first-degree felonies. Each count came with a 10-year prison sentence and would be served consecutively for a total of 20 years in prison.
In direct opposition to the feud that previously brewed between Stone and prosecutor Matthew Crall over the case, Leuthold spoke patiently to Saunders about the plea agreement and the defendant responded in polite, subdued answers.
Saunders’ composure held until the judge asked how he pleaded to kidnapping, his voice breaking over the word guilty as Stone leaned over and offered a tissue.
Crall said it was never a question whether Saunders lost control, but rather one of whether the death of Frederick Saunders, Sr. was pre-meditated. Crall’s office determined that Saunders’ actions were not a pre-meditated plan; instead, Crall said, the actions were committed in a fit of passion.
“This fit of rage,” Stone said, “came truly at a time when my client wasn’t there. He was somewhere else; his mind was somewhere else.”
Stone described Saunders as a caring father and loving husband, an honorably discharged veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and slipped through the cracks of the healthcare system.
“He knows he did wrong, but he never had a chance to grieve for his father,” Stone added. “This is not unique, Judge. This is tragic.”
“The court finds itself in agreement with just about everything you said,” Leuthold told Stone.
The judge reviewed the statement Saunders gave to police shortly after the incident occurred. At that time, police asked Saunders if he took his father’s life, to which the defendant replied, “I don’t know” and admitted it may have happened.
Leuthold believed Saunders lost composure on Sept. 30 and behaved in a manner no one expected.
“We have one person who is no longer with us and we have one person in front of us suffering from guilt,” Leuthold said, referring to Saunders Sr. and Jr. “There’s no winners.”
Leuthold said justice required a lengthy prison sentence, but the usual fire was missing from the judge’s voice as he sentenced Saunders.
“You cannot take back what you’ve done. This is a harsh penalty, but you need to move on with your life,” Leuthold advised. “No sense of making up for it, but if you want to cleanse your soul, you need to move forward and do good things in your life. Keep your mind on that. The past is the past. You must move forward.”
Leuthold lifted the gag order on Saunders’ case; it is still in effect for Marla Saunders’ case.
“We feel this is an appropriate resolution to this matter,” Crall said after the hearing. “The word tragedy was used and that aptly describes the entire situation. The family was trying to deal with a difficult situation and made some very bad decisions that resulted in this by keeping Mr. Saunders from leaving the home. They thought they were doing something to protect him, but in fact that was a very bad decision to make.”
“This case was tragic from the beginning. It’s a somber day,” Stone said. “I rarely get to say you represent somebody who you respect. I respect Fred Saunders.
“I think we know so little about post-traumatic stress disorder,” he added. “We see this too often. I’m proud of him taking responsibility for himself. He handled himself with dignity and with honor. It’s just – today was just a sad day.”
Saunders Sr. was taken to the emergency room of Galion Community Hospital on the night of Sept. 30. After being pronounced deceased, he was taken to a funeral home where, Crall has alleged, the family attempted to have the body cremated quickly. Police were alerted to a suspicious death by Saunders Jr.’s sister-in-law and Marla Saunders’ twin sister, Carla Willoughby, who pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence and obstructing justice. Saunders was originally charged with aggravated murder, kidnapping, and tampering with evidence. Marla Saunders is currently facing charges of complicity to commit murder, kidnapping, and tampering with evidence.
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