MURDER CASE Prosecutor unable to participate in appeal

The state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments March 28.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Ohio Supreme Court won't allow the Mahoning County Prosecutor's office to participate in oral arguments when justices review the murder case of John Drummond Jr. next month.
County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains said it boils down to "a procedural defect, all based on a typographical error" that led to a missed deadline.
Drummond was sentenced to death in February 2004 after being convicted 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 when shots from an assault rifle were fired into the house.
Drummond also was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the attempted murders and felonious assaults on the baby's parents, eight years in prison for firing a weapon into a house, and three years for using a firearm.
Appeals are mandatory in capital cases.
What happened
The typographical error occurred about a year ago, when the prosecutor's appellate lawyer, Greta Johnson, resigned to take a job in Summit County. She wrote a note before she left about the status of various cases, including Drummond's. That note included a date for a deadline to file briefs with the Supreme Court, "and we relied on that," Gains said. The date was incorrect; it was typed as the 21st of the month instead of the 11th.
The prosecutor's office asked to participate in oral arguments anyway, but the Supreme Court denied that request, Gains said.
Gains hopes the Supreme Court concludes that the trial court did not commit any errors during Drummond's trial, he said.