MAHONING COUNTY Execution date set for Vrabel, who killed woman, daughter

The victim's sister has mixed emotions about the pending execution.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Lydia Kotouch has looked forward to July 14 for years.
That's the day the Ohio Supreme Court has set for the execution of Stephen Vrabel, who is in prison for killing Kotouch's sister and niece.
"It's what we have been waiting for, but I have mixed emotions about it," the Struthers woman said. "It will be good to have him gone, but it won't change anything."
Vrabel, 46, has been on Ohio's death row since October 1995 for killing his common-law wife, Susan Clemente, and their 3-year-old daughter, Lisa, in 1989.
The victims' bodies were found in the refrigerator and freezer of their Struthers apartment. Clemente was Kotouch's sister.
Appeal
After Vrabel unsuccessfully appealed his conviction and death sentence to the Ohio 7th District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court, he said he wanted to waive all further appeals and go ahead with his execution.
After two court-ordered psychiatric examinations, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ruled in March that Vrabel is mentally competent to make such a decision.
The high court issued the execution date this week.
bjackson@vindy.com