Family fighting parole for convict involved in killing

By DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

BOARDMAN — The family of a township man killed during a 1982 robbery at his parents’ home plans to attend the parole hearing for one of the men convicted in the crime.

Doug Skica, 29, was shot and killed July 25, 1982, when four young Cleveland area men followed his father, Dan Skica, home from the family’s Mayfield Heights restaurant to rob him.

Debbie Skica, who is married to Dan Skica, Doug’s brother, said family members plan to attend the 1 p.m. Nov. 14 hearing in Columbus before the parole board for James Lee Hall, 54, formerly of the Cleveland area.

Debbie keeps track of the parole hearings for the men since her mother-in-law’s death in 2004. “I promised my mother-in-law that I would,” she said.

A jury convicted Hall of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary. There was apparently confusion over which of the four men fired the fatal shot.

A second man, Jerome Thompson, 52, also formerly of the Cleveland area, pleaded to involuntary manslaughter and is set for an institutional hearing in early November before one parole board member.

That hearing is closed so family members can’t attend.

An institutional hearing is an early step in the parole process.

Two others stayed in the car. Charges were dropped against one when he cooperated with authorities. The fourth man was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and released from prison in 2004.

On the night of Doug’s death, two of the four men approached the elder Skica, also named Dan, in the driveway of the family’s home in the Sherwood Forest development and pistol whipped him, looking for cash.

For complete story, see Monday’s Vindicator or www.vindy.com.