HOWLAND SLAYING Jury recommends death sentence

The judge will decide if Roberts should get the death penalty or life in prison.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Convicted killer Donna Roberts dared jurors to recommend that she receive the death sentence, and that's exactly what they did.
"I got what I wanted," said a handcuffed Roberts, 59, as deputies led her to the courthouse elevator. "I wanted equality. The other defendant was black; he got the death penalty. So I asked for equality, and maybe this will help one other person."
The jury deliberated a little over an hour Wednesday before recommending that Roberts be sentenced to death. Jurors declined to be interviewed.
The same jury convicted her last week of complicity to aggravated murder, with death specifications that the crime took place with prior calculation and design and at the same time as an aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery.
It will now be up to Judge John Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to decide if Roberts should be sentenced to death. The judge can decide, instead, to sentence her to life in prison without the possibility of parole or life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 or 30 years.
Judge Stuard will make his recommendation after the county adult parole authority performs a background check on Roberts.
"I'm 59 years old so the death penalty is what I wanted," Roberts said. "If I would be sentenced to life without parole I'd still be getting out of there in a box. If I get 30 years with parole eligibility, I'll be 89 when I get out."
No witnesses called
The jury began deliberating shortly after the penalty phase of the trial was completed. Traditionally, during the penalty phase the defense presents witnesses, including mental-health experts, and asks the jury to spare the defendant's life. Roberts' son attended the hearing but did not speak.
Roberts said she refused to allow her attorneys to call any witnesses; instead, she gave an hourlong unsworn statement.
Roberts said she wanted to speak so that she could expose people who she felt lied during her trial and to also demand racial equality.
"All men are created equal, unless your skin is black and you grew up on the streets because you had no other choice," Roberts said. "Because you are poor and must place your life in the hands of the incompetent public defenders."
Roberts' co-defendant, Nathaniel Jackson, who prosecutors said was her lover, was represented by a public defender. The two were accused of conspiring to kill Robert Fingerhut, Roberts' former husband.
Jackson, 29, of Youngstown, was convicted in December of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary. He was sentenced to death. He is appealing the conviction.
2001 slaying
Roberts and Jackson were accused of killing Fingerhut on Dec. 11, 2001, in the Howland home Roberts and Fingerhut shared, just two days after Jackson was released from prison. He had served one year on a Mahoning County conviction for receiving stolen property.
Roberts and Jackson wrote hundreds of letters to each other, some discussing their plans to kill Fingerhut when Jackson was released from prison, prosecutors said during the trial.
Roberts, who during her unsworn statement poked fun at prosecutors and made several of the jurors laugh, said the jury did not get to read all the letters. She also said that prosecutors and police twisted evidence.
She said the prosecutors kept pointing out that she was Jewish and Jackson was black.
"No matter what else you heard in here -- and I'm sure half was forgotten, but I know every single one of you remembered Jewish when you went into that jury room ... black, Jewish," Roberts said.
She also told the jurors she doesn't consider them her peers.
"I have had experiences some of you cannot even fathom or dream of," Roberts said, noting she has traveled around the world. "Among the reasons you put to justify that you had no preconceived ideas with regard to this case was that you didn't watch the news or read the newspapers, and that's scary. Do you know what is happening in the world?"
Roberts said after the hearing that she made the comments in hopes the jury would not like her and recommend the death penalty.