By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
The man accused of killing four men in their Bucyrus homes over this past Labor Day weekend is scheduled to be back in Common Pleas Court on Wednesday. Court records indicate Donald W. Hoffman is scheduled to be in court at 10 o’clock Wednesday morning for a change of plea hearing.
Hoffman was charged in a 21-count indictment with the aggravated murders of Billjack Chatman, Freelin Hensley, Jerald Smith and Darrell Lewis. Hoffman is currently being held on $10 million bond in the Crawford County Justice Center and is represented by attorneys Robert and Rolf Whitney.
Crawford County Prosecutor Matt Crall said he has spoken extensively with family members of the victims.
“I’ve talked with all the family members. We even had some people fly in. I think the biggest issue is a plea allows closure,” Crall said. “It severely limits any appeals. I think most of the victims’ families remember the Kevin Keith case, and I think they know what those family members went through.”
Keith was convicted of the 1994 triple murder of 24-year-old Marichell Chapman, her 4-year-old daughter Marchae, and Marichell’s aunt – 39-year-old Linda Chapman – in a Bucyrus apartment. In September of 2010, then Governor Ted Strickland commuted Kevin Keith death sentence to life without parole less than two weeks prior to his scheduled execution date even though a state parole board voted unanimously against clemency.
Crall said Keith was still appealing his conviction.
“There are still appeals on that, I received something just the other day where Keith had filed another appeal and was quickly denied. The state attorney general’s office handles a lot of that,” Crall said. “There are always people in prison filing appeals, but when you have a death penalty case there are a lot more appellate rights.”
Crall conceded not everyone was in total agreement with the plea. But the plea will, for all intents and purposes, bring an end to the case.
“Their (victim’s family members) opinions on the death penalty are all varied,” Crall said. “It was very important to me they were allowed input.”
Crall said in his research he could only find one case where the defendant in a capital case pleaded guilty and received the death penalty.
The average stay on death row is 15 years. Kevin Keith trial cost county more than $100,000 which was never recouped. Some research indicates average cost is closer to $250,000. Even if Hoffman would have been convicted and sentenced to death, there is no guarantee that sentence would ever have been carried out. There have been problems with executions in several states including Ohio. The next execution in Ohio was scheduled for February but has already been postponed.
A four-day trial in front of Judge Russell Wiseman beginning Jan. 20 is also on the Common Pleas Court docket. However, that hearing will not be necessary if Hoffman proceeds Wednesday with the expected plea agreement. That agreement calls for Hoffman to plead guilty to four charges of aggravated murder in exchange for an agreed sentence of four consecutive life sentences without parole. All other charges would be dropped.