State’s top court affirms death sentence for triple murderer

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court has affirmed the death sentence of a man who shot and killed three people in Portage County in 2005 in what the justices called a “horrific crime.”

The state’s high court rejected all 15 allegations of legal or procedural errors made by James Trimble, who sought to have his sentence reduced to life in prison.

“We find nothing in the nature and circumstances of the offense to be mitigating,” Chief Justice Thomas Moyer wrote in the court’s decision. He added later, “In contrast, we find that as to each of these counts, Trimble’s mitigating evidence has little significance. Therefore, we find that the death sentence in this case is appropriate.”

Trimble was convicted of the aggravated murders of his girlfriend and her 7-year-old son (Renee Bauer and Dakota Bauer) and, in a separate home, Kent State University student Sarah Positano. He held the latter hostage and shot her during a standoff with police.

For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Vindicator or vindy.com