Sex offender sentenced to death for killing 2 teen girls

April 1, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

CINCINNATI

An Ohio registered sex offender who described himself as “evil” was sentenced to death Wednesday for killing two teenage girls and burning their bodies.

Anthony Kirkland, 41, of Cincinnati was sentenced two weeks after a jury convicted him of aggravated murder, gross abuse of a corpse, attempted rape and aggravated robbery.

His attorneys offered no defense, focusing instead on trying to convince the jury to spare his life. Kirkland told jurors he was “evil” and “a monster.”

As part of the trial, prosecutors introduced details about Kirkland’s guilty pleas to the murders of two other females.

“We did what we could to try to save his life, but the court and the jury rejected our argument,” defense attorney Norm Aubin said Wednesday after the sentencing.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters did not immediately return a message for comment.

Judge Charles Kubicki Jr. could have chosen to give Kirkland life in prison for the slayings of Esme Kenney, 13, and Casonya Crawford, 14, both of Cincinnati. Instead, the judge accepted the sentence recommended by the jury March 17.

Kirkland was to be tried for all four deaths but pleaded guilty before the trial to charges of murder and gross abuse of a corpse in the slayings of Mary Jo Newton, 45, and Kimya Rolison, 25, also of Cincinnati.

Kirkland was sentenced to 32 years to life for the slayings of the two women plus 38 years for the noncapital offenses in the teens’ cases, according to court and prosecutor’s officials.

Before sentencing, the judge asked Kirkland if he had anything to say. Showing little emotion, Kirkland apologized to the families of the victims.

His execution was scheduled for Sept. 30, but death penalty cases are automatically appealed.

After sentencing, Crawford’s grandmother addressed Kirkland, telling him of the pain he had caused.

“What you did to my granddaughter, you also did to me,” Arlene Lee said. “She was a part of me.”

Lee told Kirkland that she remains angry.

“It’s real easy when they put that needle in your arm, you just go on,” she said. “We have to continue to live.”

Phyllis Moore, Crawford’s aunt, said she wanted him to die slowly.

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” she said to Kirkland. “How can you look at me? You should be looking down at the floor.”

She said she had no words to describe him.

“They call you a monster,” she said. “I don’t know what to call you.”

A halfway house released Kirkland weeks before Kenney’s slaying. Police said they found Kirkland near Kenney’s partially burned body in woods near her home in March 2009. She had left home to go jogging at a reservoir.

In investigating Kenney’s death, authorities later charged Kirkland in the other slayings, which all occurred in 2006.

The teens and Newton were strangled; Rolison was stabbed. The women’s bodies also were burned.