WARREN Judge to mull death penalty for Jackson

Last year, a white man was sentenced to death in Trumbull County, the prosecutor said.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A judge will soon decide if defense attorneys' argument that the death penalty is applied disproportionately to blacks has any bearing on a Trumbull County case.
Attys. Anthony Consoldane and James Lewis of the Ohio Public Defender's Commission told Judge John Stuard during Tuesday's hearing that their client, Nathaniel Jackson, should not receive the death penalty.
Judge Stuard said he will take the matter under advisement and release a decision in a few weeks.
"The death penalty is not given proportionately in this county," Consoldane said during the 30-minute hearing.
"We've had recent cases where a defendant convicted of multiple killings received life in prison and a defendant accused of raping and killing a girl also received life in prison."
Consoldane noted that those defendants were white. Jackson is black.
Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, however, argued that the defendants in those cases, Scott Burrows, convicted of killing Charles and Dorothy London of Hubbard, and George Foster, convicted of killing Bridget Wetzl, had more mitigating circumstances than Jackson.
Another example
Watkins added that Stanley Adams was convicted and sentenced to death last year. Adams is white.
Adams was convicted of killing Esther Cook and her 12-year-old daughter, Ashley.
A jury recommended two weeks ago that Jackson, 30, of Youngstown, convicted of killing a Howland businessman, be sentenced to death.
Whether Jackson is given the death penalty is up to Judge Stuard. Sentencing is scheduled for next month. The judge can decide to reduce Jackson's sentence to life in prison without parole, or to 25 to 30 years.
Judge Stuard, however, said during Tuesday's hearing that he hasn't found a case in Trumbull County where the judge did not follow the jury's recommendation in a death penalty case.
Jackson was convicted two weeks ago in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court of aggravated murder, burglary and robbery, with firearms specifications.
Jackson and Donna Roberts, 57, of Howland, were charged with killing Robert Fingerhut in his Fonderlac Drive S.E. residence Dec. 11, 2001. She is scheduled to go on trial in April.
Fingerhut owned the Greyhound bus terminals in Warren and Youngstown. Roberts and Fingerhut were divorced but lived together.
sinkovich@vindy.com