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Watkins opposes parole for killer in ’88 case
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Christopher W. Daniel
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins has written to the Ohio Parole Board asking that Christopher W. Daniel, 41, who participated in a deadly Warren burglary and robbery in 1988, remain in prison.
He comes up for a parole hearing in September. He has served 22 years.
Daniel was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery and sentenced to 37 to 100 years in prison for the attack that resulted in the death of George Melnick and the permanent blinding of Katherine Melnick.
Daniel’s co-defendant, Andre Williams, was sentenced to death for his role in the crime and awaits execution on Ohio’s Death Row.
While Daniel was attacking Katherine Melnick with a brick, Williams was attacking George Melnick, 65, also with a brick.
Watkins said the crimes committed by Daniel and Williams on Aug. 15, 1988, are “one of the major cases in Warren, Ohio” because of the brutal nature of the attack on the elderly couple.
Watkins said Daniel “pummeled the head and face” of Katherine Melnick, then 64, with a brick weighing about 8 pounds, causing numerous facial fractures, a brain injury and blindness.
“It’s a miracle she survived,” Watkins said, noting that she remained in the kitchen of her house on Wick Street Southeast for 24 hours after the attack before she and her dead husband were found.
“This was a horrendous attack on a 64-year-old woman,” Watkins said.
The motive for the attack was burglary, Watkins said. Daniel and Williams left the home after taking cash, credit cards and a VCR.
Watkins said Daniel “actively and gladly participated in murder and mayhem” and “personally beat Katherine Melnick to a pulp and left her for dead.”
Katherine Melnick is residing in a nursing home.
“Just as Andre Williams deserves to have his death sentence carried out, Chris Daniel deserves to die in prison,” Watkins wrote in his letter to the parole board.