Former Cortland man facing charge in 1994 rape, killing

Gunther admits having sex with the victim, his lawyer says.

WARREN — A trial for the former Cortland man charged with raping and killing a 48-year-old Warren woman in 1994 is set to take place Feb. 25 after what his defense attorney says was a final pretrial hearing this week.

William K. Gunther Jr., 36, formerly of Old Oak Drive, is charged with the murder and rape of Priscilla I. Code of Highland Avenue Southwest in Warren.

Code’s partially clothed body was found on Peerless Street Southwest near the current Western Reserve Middle School at just after midnight Jan. 15, 1994. She died from multiple gunshot wounds.

The case went cold for 13 years before authorities used a federal DNA-matching database to determine that the DNA found in Code’s body as a result of her rape matched Gunther’s.

Gunther’s DNA was available for testing because he had been incarcerated in an Ohio prison Aug. 6, 1998, to April 2, 2004. People convicted of certain crimes in Ohio are required to give a sample of their DNA.

After a two-year investigation, Gunther was brought back to Trumbull County from Miami in February 2007. He has been held in the Trumbull County Jail on $500,000 bond since the arrest.

Gunther’s attorney, John Fowler of Warren, says Gunther admits having sex with Code in a Southwest Warren “crack house” but denies killing her.

Fowler said the pretrial hearing held earlier this week before Judge W. Wyatt McKay would be the last one before the trial starts.

If convicted on the murder charge, Gunther faces 18 years to life in prison. The rape charge carries a prison sentence of up to 13 years.