Killer wants to stop appeals

Vrabel was committed to a psychiatric hospital from 1990 to 1994.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Stephen A. Vrabel didn't hesitate when he answered Judge R. Scott Krichbaum in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
"What is your desire?" the judge asked during a Friday hearing.
"To waive any and all further challenges to my sentence," the death row inmate said.
"You understand that you have been sentenced to death, and you will be put to death by the state of Ohio?"
"Yes."
The Ohio Supreme Court had ordered that the local court determine whether Vrabel, 46, is competent to waive challenges to his conviction and sentence for the 1989 shooting deaths of his common-law wife and daughter in Struthers.
Defense Atty. John B. Juhasz said Vrabel has repeatedly advised his defense team to refrain from filing any further appeals or challenges. Appeals to the 7th District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court have been rejected.
Krichbaum, with input from defense attorneys and attorneys from the offices of the state Public Defender and state Attorney General, discussed with Vrabel various options he might have, both at the state and federal level. The defendant answered clearly and coherently with an apparent knowledge of applicable law.
Roughly a dozen onlookers, representing Vrabel's victims, watched silently in the court gallery.
The murders
Vrabel was convicted in 1995 of fatally shooting Susan Clemente, his common-law wife, and Lisa, his 3-year-old daughter, and placing their bodies in the refrigerator and freezer of their Struthers apartment.
He had been committed to the Central Ohio Psychiatric Hospital in Columbus from 1990 to 1994.
Last month, the high court granted Vrabel a reprieve from his execution, which had been scheduled for Sept. 30, and ordered the county court to determine competency. While Vrabel had filed a motion seeking to waive all of his appeals, lawyers in the Public Defender's Office sought a stay of execution.
Evaluations
Krichbaum said Friday that at least one but not more than three people would be appointed to evaluate Vrabel. The judge told Juhasz, as well as attorneys from both state offices, that each group has until next Friday at 4 p.m. to recommend an expert and determine how long an evaluation would take to complete.
Krichbaum also granted Vrabel's request to remain on death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution while the matter is resolved.