Jury recommends life without parole

The defendant smiled when the jury's decision was read.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A Trumbull County Common Pleas judge will decide Friday whether to follow a jury's recommendation and give Mark Worley, convicted of murdering an elderly couple, a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.
Judge Andrew Logan scheduled sentencing for 10 a.m. Friday. The judge can follow the jury's recommendation or he can decide to sentence Worley, 22, to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 or 30 years.
The same jury that found Worley guilty last week of the murder of Charles London and the aggravated murder of Dorothy London spent 41/2 hours Tuesday in deliberating Worley's punishment. The jury could have recommended that Worley be sentenced to death.
Worley, who showed little emotion throughout the three-week trial, smiled when the verdict was read and shook Atty. Lou DeFabio's hand. DeFabio and James Gentile, both of Youngstown, were Worley's court-appointed defense attorneys.
Worley declined to comment.
"We are pleased with the verdict," DeFabio said. "We never denied responsibility. We did believe that the death penalty was inappropriate."
Satisfied: Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and Carol London-Nuth, the daughter of the murder victims, also said they were satisfied with the jury's recommendation.
"We will accept the recommendation," London-Nuth said. "I am happy that he will never be able to get out and hurt anyone else ever again."
Police said Worley went to the Londons' Hubbard Township home on Dec. 15, 1999, with Scott Burrows, 20, to rob the elderly couple. Gentile said during the trial that it was Burrows who decided to kill the couple.
Burrows was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
DeFabio and Gentile had urged the jury to spare Worley's life. DeFabio said Worley endured "physical and mental abuse" while growing up.