Prosecutor seeks execution date for 3rd Trumbull County killer

Danny Lee Hill also has filed a self-written motion asking to ‘put a stop to’ his appeals.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins has filed a motion with the Ohio Supreme Court, asking for an execution date for Roderick Davie.

Davie killed John Coleman and Tracey Jeffries and nearly killed John Everett at the Veterinary Companies of America in 1991.

Davie, 38, exhausted all federal appeals when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of his death sentence earlier this month.

Davie had been fired from his job at the VCA on Main Avenue Southwest about three months before walking into the warehouse at 7:30 a.m. and ordering VCA employees Coleman, Jeffries, and Everett to lie face down on the floor.

Everett said Davie told them, “So you all work for VCA huh?” Everett then heard gunshots and felt shots in the back of his head, shoulder and left arm. He remained conscious though he played dead.

Jefferys attempted to escape, but Davie brought her back at gunpoint. After firing his last bullet into Coleman, Davie beat Jefferys to death with several instruments, including a metal chair on which police later found Davie’s fingerprints in Jefferys’ blood. The beating caused 36 separate lacerations on Jefferys.

“Beyond all doubt, this man is a ruthless killer,” Watkins said Thursday.

Watkins noted that Davie committed his crimes four months after Kenneth Biros killed Tami Engstrom in Brookfield Township. Biros is also awaiting execution, but the execution is on hold while the state examines its method of execution, lethal injection.

Watkins said it is likely that the Ohio Supreme Court will set Davie’s execution for sometime in 2010.

Meanwhile, Danny Lee Hill, who killed 12-year-old Raymond Fife in 1985 and is on Death Row, has filed a self-written motion with the U.S. District Court of Appeals asking for the court to “put a stop to” the legal proceedings in his case.

“Over time, Mr. Hill has come to realize that it is time to put a stop to all of this,” Hill wrote.

Miriam Fife, Trumbull County victim-witness advocate and mother of Raymond Fife, said she doesn’t know what the filing is intended to do or what effect it will have on Hill’s pending appeals.