Watkins to high court: Set execution for Biros

By Tim Yovich

Tami Engstrom’s sister said she believes Biros will be put to death this time.

WARREN — Tom Heiss says it about time his sister’s murderer is put to death.

“I’m happy it’s going forward. It’s time for our family to have a little justice,” said Heiss, brother of Tami Engstrom, who was killed and dismembered at the hands of Kenneth Biros in 1991.

His reactions came Wednesday after the Trumbull County prosecutor’s office asked the Ohio Supreme Court to set an execution date for Biros, of Brookfield.

“There shouldn’t be any more obstruction,” Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said after LuWayne Annos, an assistant county prosecutor, filed a motion with the state’s high court in Columbus seeking an execution date.

Biros, 49, was scheduled to die March 20, 2007, but numerous appeals have delayed the execution by lethal injection.

“It has destroyed me,” Heiss said of his sister’s death and following court delays. “It hurts; it hurts a lot.”

Heiss, 40, lives on Youngstown’s West Side.

His 43-year-old sister, Debi Heiss of Hubbard, said she is happy with Watkins’ seeking the date because she believes in the judicial system.

Although Watkins sought no specific date for the execution, he said he hopes it will be set within three months.

As Biros was about to face lethal injection in 2007, Gov. Ted Strickland, who had taken office in January 2007, delayed the execution of Biros and two other death row inmates so he could review their cases.

Besides the governor, the courts were also a factor in delaying the execution.

Judge Gregory F. Frost of the Southern District of Ohio granted an emergency preliminary stay to delay the execution indefinitely.

His ruling came in response to Biros’ joining a civil-rights lawsuit that claimed lethal injection as a method of carrying out the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment.

The suit targeted the “three-drug cocktail” used by the state of Kentucky.

On April 16, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the cocktail did not violate the Eighth Amendment.

Ohio uses a drug cocktail similar to Kentucky’s.

In his motion, Watkins said it’s clear that Biros has exhausted all of his state and federal court reviews. Since he has not appealed, the motion says, the Ohio Supreme Court should issue a death warrant setting an execution date.

Biros killed Engstrom near his King Graves Road home.

He agreed to take her from the Nickelodeon Lounge in Masury to help her recover from illness or intoxication by getting her coffee.

Instead, Biros admitted that he had strangled her and placed parts of her body in three locations after cutting off her head and part of one leg. Biros had said he went into a rage.

“We really need this to be brought to justice after 17 years. This time we know it’s going to be done,” Debi Heiss said.

“Tami needs to rest in peace,” she added.

Debi Heiss said Engstrom’s husband, Andy, died of a massive heart attack three years ago.

Also, both of her parents are ill, and she wants them to live long enough to know that Biros has been put to death.

yovich@vindy.com