Conviction is overturned

January 2, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

AKRON (AP) — An Ohio appeals court has overturned the conviction of a man found guilty in the death of his friend who drowned in Lake Erie after falling out of a boat.

Investigators initially thought James Barnett of Barberton accidentally drowned near South Bass Island in 2002.

But a witness later reported seeing a man push another man overboard near the island, and in 2007 a jury found 43-year-old Scott Speer of Fairlawn guilty of aggravated vehicular homicide and involuntary manslaughter in Barnett’s death.

The 6th District Court of Appeals in Toledo concluded in a unanimous decision released Wednesday that a hearing-impaired woman should not have been seated on the jury, since she couldn’t fully understand a 911 tape that was a key piece of evidence.

Ottawa County Prosecutor Mark Mulligan plans to appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Speer is serving a four-year sentence.