July hearing set for man on death row for 1986 murders

Experts will decide what tests to administer to gauge Lorraine’s mental abilities.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — Charles Lorraine will have a hearing starting July 13, when a judge will hear evidence on whether the former Warren man is mentally retarded and should be exempt from being executed.

Lorraine, 42, killed Raymond Montgomery, 77, and his wife, Doris, 80, in their home on Haymaker Avenue Northwest in 1986.

On Thursday, Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court had a status hearing with LuWayne Annos of the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s office and Lorraine’s attorneys.

It was decided that experts for the prosecution, for Lorraine and for Judge Logan will convene at a time agreed to by all three experts to test Lorraine’s mental abilities.

The testing will be done only once, but all three experts will participate or observe in each phase to guarantee fairness, Annos said.

Among the tests are street skills survival and a standardized intelligence test. The experts will decide which tests are appropriate, with the judge’s expert having final say, Annos said.

The process for determining whether Lorraine is retarded will closely follow the process used when Judge Thomas P. Curran, a visiting judge from Cuyahoga County, determined that Danny Lee Hill was not retarded, Annos said. The prosecutor and judge will use the same exam expert as in the Hill case, Annos said.

Hill is on death row for killing 12-year-old Raymond Fife in Warren in 1985.

Lorraine’s July hearing, called an Atkins hearing, was necessitated by a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Atkins vs. Virginia that said execution of the mentally retarded is cruel and unusual punishment.