Youngstown man pleads innocent to murder of wife
YOUNGSTOWN
A 55-year-old city man has pleaded innocent to the murder of his 44-year-old wife in his arraignment in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Daniel Wellington entered his plea Tuesday before Magistrate Daniel Dascenzo in the Aug. 5 death of his wife, Doris, in their East Side residence.
The magistrate deferred the matter of bond to Judge Maureen A. Sweeney, who will preside over Wellington’s jury trial, which is tentatively set for Sept. 19.
Wellington, who has no prior criminal record, was freed from jail after making a $25,000 bond that was set in Youngstown Municipal Court, where he initially faced a voluntary manslaughter charge, according to Wellington’s lawyer, James Gentile.
However, Wellington has been jailed since he was re-arrested after his Thursday grand jury indictment for the higher charge of murder, which came after the coroner ruled the death a homicide by manual strangulation.
“We’re going to seek to have the bond reinstated,” Gentile said after court.
The manslaughter charge carried a three-to-10-year prison term upon conviction, but the murder charge carries 15 years to life in prison upon conviction.
The manslaughter charge alleged Wellington knowingly killed his wife in a sudden fit of rage brought on by serious provocation from her; but the murder charge simply alleges he purposely killed her.
Police were called to the Wellingtons’ Knapp Avenue residence for a report of a woman not breathing.
When they arrived, Wellington was performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on his wife, but paramedics were unable to revive her.
Wellington told police he and his wife argued and she jumped on him. He said he grabbed her around the neck to get her off of him, and she hit her head as they rolled off the bed.