Ariz. man charged in 1979 stabbing death

The victim was stabbed nine times in the chest and stomach.

STAFF report

WARREN — A 56-year-old Arizona man who fled from Warren in 1979 after being accused of killing an 18-year-old Warren Township man has been returned to Trumbull County and pleaded innocent to a murder charge.

Ronald Stahlman of Payson, Ariz., was brought to the Trumbull County Jail on Monday and appeared Tuesday morning in the courtroom of Judge Andrew Logan in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

Stahlman faces a murder charge that carries with it a possible prison sentence of 15 years to life.

Judge Logan set bond at $2 million and set a second hearing for 9:55 a.m. Tuesday.

Stahlman started a new life with a new name in Arizona before authorities tracked him down and arrested him Dec. 9 in Payson after getting information from an informant.

A press release from the U.S. Marshals Service says Stahlman, then a member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, and some friends were involved in an assault in which Stahlman stabbed Bernard Williamson of Karl Avenue in Warren Township on April 29, 1979. Stahlman was 26 at the time.

Williamson was pronounced dead at the location where his body was found in the intersection of Main Avenue and Fulton Street Southwest. His body was found about 3:30 a.m., stabbed nine times in the chest and stomach.

Stahlman was a suspect in the death shortly after it happened, and police issued a warrant for his arrest, but he could not be located for more than 29 years.

There is no period of limitation in Ohio law for the prosecution of a person charged with either aggravated murder or murder.