Man appeals conviction in triple-murder case

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A defendant in the April 1996 Newport Inn triple-murder case has filed a motion for a delayed appeal with the 7th District Court of Appeals.

The notice of appeal was filed Monday on behalf of Eugene Foose, of West Princeton Avenue, who was sentenced at age 18 to 43 years to life in prison for complicity to aggravated murder, complicity to attempted aggravated murder and complicity to aggravated robbery with a firearm specification.

Based on his original sentence, Foose’s earliest eligibility for parole was to be 30 years after his October 1997 sentencing.

Foose’s appellate lawyer, Rhys B. Cartwright-Jones, said in his motion that the sentencing judge, John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, failed to explain to Foose the consequences of his guilty plea to those charges. The motion asks the appellate judges to hear oral arguments on this matter.

The motion notes that Foose’s trial lawyer did not file a notice of appeal and that his case has not been reviewed by the appeals court.

If successful, the appeal would vacate Foose’s guilty plea and send the case back to Judge Durkin for another plea hearing or for a trial.

Police said Foose and five other men entered the West Indianola Avenue bar to commit robbery. When shots were fired, bar patrons Herman Naze, Jimmie Lee Jones and Dennis Kotheimer were killed, and bar owner Ron Marinelli and a patron, Deborah Aziz, were seriously wounded.

One of the five defendants, Willie Herring, was sentenced to death.