Higher court orders judge to reconsider killer's request

Three Trumbull killers are using the mental retardation ruling in appeals.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A decision by a Trumbull County judge refusing to consider a mental retardation claim for a man convicted of a 1988 killing will be sent back to the judge for reconsideration.
Andre Williams, who was convicted in 1989 of killing George Melnick, 65, and severely beating Melnick's wife, Katherine, 65, was sentenced to the death penalty for his crimes.
In 2003, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it's unconstitutional to execute people who are mentally retarded, Williams filed a petition in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court stating that his death sentence should be vacated on those grounds.
Judge W. Wyatt McKay denied that request in 2004, finding that Williams' petition failed to submit documents demonstrating his mental retardation. Williams appealed that decision to the 11th District Court of Appeals.
In a ruling released Monday, appeals court Judge Diane V. Grendell, writing for the court, said Judge McKay's ruling "confused the distinction between the dismissal of Williams' petition without hearing and the granting of summary judgment in the state's favor."
The issues of dismissal and summary judgment must be considered separately, the ruling said. Judge McKay also impermissibly weighed conflicting evidence and made a number of findings of fact, it stated.
Next step
The judge will now have the option of denying the petition without a hearing, act on the state's motion for summary judgment or schedule a hearing and weigh the evidence and enter a judgment.
LuWayne Annos, a Trumbull County assistant prosecutor, called the decision procedural, saying Judge McKay's ruling was "not properly drafted."
Williams' attorney, John B. Juhasz of Youngstown, did not return a phone call Monday afternoon seeking comment.
Williams is one of three men convicted in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court and sentenced to die who have used the mental retardation defense to try to avoid the death penalty. The others are Charles Lorraine and Danny Lee Hill.
Lorraine was convicted in the November 1986 killing of Raymond Montgomery, 77, and his wife, Doris, 80, in their home on Haymaker Avenue Northwest. Hill was sentenced to death for the 1985 murder of Raymond Fife, 12, who was raped and tortured.
A visiting judge is expected to rule in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on Hill's petition as soon as this week.