August 3, 2007
Ohio
Convicted killer seeks a new trial
By Lisa Miller, Bucyrus Telegraph Forum
BUCYRUS -- Local police made a "a disturbing rush to judgment," according to
a motion filed Wednesday seeking a new trial for a Crestline man convicted
of three murders in 1994 at a Marion Road apartment complex.
It also alleges at least three officers lied in the case in which they
"pinned the crime on the wrong man."
Attorneys from the Ohio Public Defender's Office are asking that Kevin Keith
be given a new trial based on new evidence, some of which was reportedly
discovered in early July.
Keith was sentenced to die a year to the day after the Feb. 13, 1994,
shooting of Marichell Chatman, her 4-year-old daughter, Marchae; and her
aunt, Linda Chatman.
Now on death row in Youngstown, he was also convicted of attempted murder
for the shooting of Marichell's boyfriend, Richard Warren, and her cousins,
Quentin and Quanita, who survived the attack at Bucyrus Estates.
The motion filed in Crawford County Common Pleas Court says Keith is linked
to the crime "by inconsistent and incredible 'eyewitness' testimony, and a
ludicrous connection to the car that was supposedly the getaway vehicle."
With Judge Russ Wiseman, who prosecuted the case in front of then Judge
Nelfred Kimerline, now on the bench, the motion asks Judge Thomas Patrick
Curran to grant the motion for a new trial.
The attorneys say victim identification and Keith's motives because of drug
raids earlier in 1994 were two major aspects of the case against him but
"both evaporate in light of this new evidence."
The 15-page document looks at many different elements in the case, including
how the police lineup was conducted, Warren's supposed identification of
Keith and descriptions of the getaway car that got stuck in the snow that
night with its license plate number indented in the snow.
Retired Police Captain John Stanley's testimony abut getting the name Kevin
from a nurse is called into question in a recent interview with a nurse who
said she never told Stanley or anyone else that Warren said the gunman's
name was Kevin. She said she didn't ask for that information because she
didn't want to know, the motion says, adding, "In other words, Captain John
Stanley lied."
When contacted, Stanley said he didn't want to make a comment.
The motion also accuses then Police Chief Joe Beran of lying about the
Reeves' children's identification of Keith in a newspaper story published
the day before jury selection and then captain (later chief, now retired)
Mike Corwin of false testimony about not having the name of any other Kevin
as a potential suspect. Beran no longer lives in the area. Phone messages
were left for Corwin.
In asserting that the wrong man was "pinned" for the crime, the motion said
Rodney Melton told a confidential informant in late January 1994 that he had
been paid $15,000 to cripple the man who was responsible for the drug raids
in Crestline the previous week. During Keith's trial, the prosecution
pointed to Marchiell's brother Rudel Chatman as the man responsible for the
January 1994 drug raids.
"Keith's newly discovered evidence erodes any potential confidence in the
outcome -- an outcome that will cost him his life," according to the motion.
"I'm almost speechless," said Charles Keith of the attorneys appointed in
April coming up with the new evidence in a matter of months. He has long
proclaimed that his brother did not shoot six people, including three
children.
Noting that he last talked to Kevin, now a grandfather, a few days ago,
Charles said, "I told him that he was convicted on paper ... Everything's
going to unravel ... He's an innocent man sitting there for 13 years."
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Source : Bucyrus Telegraph Forum
http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/ap ... 30302/1002
