Convicted killer to remain on death row

WARREN — The Ohio Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal of the death sentence for killer Andre R. Williams.

LuWayne Annos, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said the court’s decision could signal the end of Williams’ state appeals, though that decision will be up to Williams and his lawyer, John Juhasz, of Boardman.

Juhasz could not be reached today.

Annos said her office will notify the Ohio attorney general’s office of the Supreme Court’s decision and expect it to notify the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati so that Williams’ federal appeals process can resume.

That process was put on hold in 2003 after a U.S. Supreme Court decision that said it is unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded.

Williams filed an appeal of his death sentence on those grounds, but both Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court and the 11th District Court of Appeals ruled against Williams.

Williams, 41, was convicted in 1989 of killing George Melnick, 65, and severely beating Melnick’s wife, Katherine, 65, in 1988 in Warren.