YOUNGSTOWN Jury sends John Drummond Jr. to death row for killing infant

The defendant insisted that he is innocent; his execution is scheduled for June.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- John Drummond Jr. will join eight other people from Mahoning County awaiting execution on Ohio's death row.
Drummond, 26, of Allerton Court, was sentenced to death Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He was convicted last week of killing 3-month-old Jiyen C. Dent Jr., who was sitting in a baby swing in the living room of his family's East Side home.
Drummond insisted that he is innocent, but the baby's mother didn't buy it.
"I truly believe that you did it," LaToya Butler said to Drummond. "I can't imagine what you are going through right now, knowing you are about to die for this."
Assault rifle shots
Butler and her boyfriend, Jiyen C. Dent Sr., had lived at their Rutledge Drive home only about four days before the night their baby was killed. Ten shots from an assault rifle were fired into the house from across the street. One of the shots struck the baby in the head.
Butler and Dent also were home, but were not shot.
"These people suffered irreparable harm, seeing their baby killed before their eyes," Judge Maureen A. Cronin said as she sentenced Drummond.
The eight-man, four-woman jury deliberated less than three hours Friday before returning with a recommendation that Drummond be executed by lethal injection. That is how Ohio executes criminal defendants convicted of capital murder.
Drummond would not stand up as the jurors left the courtroom, until a deputy sheriff took him by the arm and told him to stand. As soon as the last juror walked past him, Drummond flopped back down into his chair.
Judge Cronin adjourned to her chambers to review the evidence from Drummond's trial, then returned to the bench and affirmed the jury's recommendation. She could have refused to impose the death penalty and instead impose a life imprisonment sentence.
Execution date
She set Drummond's execution for June 20. However, that's not likely to happen because capital cases involve mandatory appeals, which will still be pending by then.
"We're obviously disappointed with the outcome," said Atty. James Gentile, who along with Atty. Ronald Yarwood defended Drummond. "He has maintained his innocence all along, and he continues to do so."
Assistant prosecutors Timothy Franken and Kelly Johns, though, said they believe the death sentence was appropriate.
For Butler and Dent, the sentencing brings closure to the nightmare that began for them in March 2003, when Jiyen Jr. was killed.
"But I'm still not happy because my son is still gone," Butler said, sobbing. "I have to live with this the rest of my life." She is expecting another baby in June.
Butler's mother, Kimberly Butler, expressed gratitude for work done by the court, police, prosecutors and jury.
"We serve an awesome God," she said. "This was God's verdict today."
Other crimes
Besides the death sentence for killing the baby, Drummond was sentenced to a total of 20 years in prison for the attempted murders and felonious assaults on Butler and Dent, eight years in prison for firing a weapon into a house, and three years for using a firearm.
According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's Web site, Mahoning County has eight other people on death row. The most recent was Martin L. Koliser, 30, of Boardman, who was sent there in November for killing Youngstown patrolman Michael Hartzell last year.
John J. Eley, 55, has spent the longest on death row from Mahoning County. He has been there since August 1987 for killing 28-year-old Ihsam Aydah while robbing Sinjil Market on West Federal Street in 1986.
In all, there are 209 inmates already on Ohio's death row.