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Hearing to revoke bond set for today
The defendant could face the death penalty if convicted.
YOUNGSTOWN — The prosecution seeks to revoke the bond of Terrance Tate, charged with beating a baby to death in April 2006.
Prosecutors say they have new evidence in the form of a confession from Tate in a phone call he made from Mahoning County Jail to his mother.
A hearing will be at 10 a.m. today before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of county common pleas court concerning the motion from Martin P. Desmond and Dawn P. Krueger, assistant county prosecutors.
Judge Krichbaum, the court’s administrative judge, will hear the motion in an emergency hearing because Judge John M. Durkin, to whom Tate’s case is assigned, is on vacation.
On July 8, Judge Durkin granted a motion from defense lawyers John B. Juhasz and Lynn Maro to reduce Tate’s bond from $150,000 to $75,000, with Tate to be on electronically monitored house arrest with strict conditions if he makes bond.
Tate, 23, of Hilton Avenue, who could face the death penalty if convicted, is charged with beating Javonte Covington to death on his first birthday.
In a memorandum supporting their motion, Desmond and Krueger said the prosecution received copies of telephone calls Tuesday made from the jail, including a May 21, 2006, call from Tate to his mother.
In that call, Tate is quoted saying: “I took the blame thinking it was a little assault charge. I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I didn’t really know it was that serious, Ma. I swear I didn’t. I didn’t know he was dead. I didn’t know none of that until I got locked up.”
The prosecution is appealing to the Ohio Supreme Court the exclusion from evidence of Tate’s confession to police, which the prosecution had said was critical to its case.
Judge Durkin and the Seventh District Court of Appeals ruled that confession was inadmissible.
While Tate was in their custody, police improperly failed to warn him of his right to remain silent before they questioned him about Javonte’s injuries, the appeals court ruled.
The new evidence discovered since the $75,000 bond was set “creates a risk that upon release Mr. Tate will flee — that he has no incentive to return to face a strong capital case,” Desmond argued in his request for today’s hearing.