JACKSON GETS DEATH SENTENCE

The woman who helped plan the murder is scheduled to go on trial in April.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Judge John Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court sentenced Nathaniel Jackson, 30, of Youngstown on Monday to death for the murder of businessman Robert Fingerhut.
Jackson asked the judge to spare his life, adding, "I didn't mean for it to happen."
After sentencing, Jackson's defense counsel made a motion for a new trial, citing prosecutorial misconduct and other legal matters. The judge took the motion under advisement.
Jackson was convicted last month of killing Fingerhut, a Howland businessman. A jury recommended that Jackson be sentenced to death.
Jackson, 30, of South Pearl Street, and Donna Roberts, 57, of Howland were charged with killing Robert Fingerhut in his Fonderlac Drive Southeast residence Dec. 11, 2001.
Fingerhut owned the Greyhound bus terminals in Warren and Youngstown.
Roberts and Fingerhut were divorced but were living together. She is scheduled to go on trial in April.
The judge could have reduced Jackson's sentence to life in prison without parole, or 25 or 30 years.
During closing arguments in the sentencing phase, Anthony Consoldane of the public defender's office had urged jurors to spare Jackson's life. He reminded the jurors that Jackson had a low IQ and had adapted well to prison life in the past.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, however, disagreed, saying that when Jackson was in prison last year, he plotted with Roberts to kill Fingerhut.
During the trial, Watkins produced numerous letters written by Jackson to Roberts, which he said showed the two were planning Fingerhut'skilling, and Jackson was waiting at the home for Fingerhut to arrive.
Watkins said the letters showed Jackson and Roberts kept in touch while Jackson was an inmate in Lorain Correctional Institution.
Jackson was released from prison Dec. 9 after serving one year on a conviction out of Mahoning County on two counts of receiving stolen property.
sinkovich@vindy.com