Trumbull judge schedules two trials in murder cases
WARREN — Trials have been set in two murder cases in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
William K. Gunther Jr., 35, formerly of Cortland, will be tried Jan. 14 for the murder and rape of a woman 13 years ago.
Trial will begin April 1 in the murder case of Randall M. Thomas, 24, of Warren, who is accused in the beating death of 2-year-old Fred Miller.
The dates were scheduled this week by Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Gunther is accused of raping then murdering Priscilla Code in Warren on Jan. 15, 1994.
Her partially clothed body was found along Peerless Street near the present Western Reserve Middle School. She had been shot multiple times.
The case went cold until earlier this year when DNA found at the scene matched Gunther’s DNA, which was obtained while he was serving an Ohio prison term on a felonious-assault charge.
He is being held in the county jail in lieu of a $500,000 bond.
In Thomas’ case, he was staying in a Fifth Street apartment with the 2-year-old boy, his stepbrother Zachery Thomas, and his brother’s girlfriend Deborah Miller, who is Fred’s mother, when police were called to the apartment Feb. 28.
Randall Thomas was left alone with the boy when police said he was beaten. The boy died days later.
Thomas is being held in the county jail in lieu of a $750,000 bond.