Board urged to deny parole for 2 killers

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins is urging the Ohio Parole Board to keep Mark Badilo and Jeff McClure, both 42, in prison for at least 10 more years for killing Badilo’s brother, Tim Badilo, on Feb. 24, 1988.

All three men were from the area of DeForest Townline Road in Weathersfield Township just west of North Road, and the murder took place in the backyard of McClure’s house on Broadway Street.

Mark Badilo and McClure were both 19 at the time they killed Tim Badilo, 23, of DeForest Road. Both men have served 19 1/2 years of a 15-years-to-life prison term. They come up for a parole hearing next month.

“The evidence of premeditation in this senseless murder is overwhelming,” Watkins told the parole board in a letter this week. “The pure brutality of killing one’s brother and another’s friend is beyond imagination.”

Watkins added, “A person who would plot the death of his brother and then burn the brother’s body beyond recognition is capable of anything and should not be released from prison.”

Mark Badilo said the reason for the murder was because the elder Badilo had squandered the money from the janitorial business they were running, and the younger Badilo wanted his brother out of the way so he could take over the business.

McClure and Mark Badilo prepared for Tim Badilo’s arrival at the Broadway home Feb. 24 by placing a pool stick in the backyard. After finding a way to get the elder Badilo to walk into the backyard, McClure hit him in the head with the pool stick.

Mark Badilo then tackled Tim Badilo and wrestled with him, according to written and videotaped confessions. The statements suggest that an elastic strap from suspenders was used to strangle Tim Badilo.

McClure and Mark Badilo placed Tim Badilo’s body in the trunk of Tim Badilo’s car and parked it in various places, including two Niles apartment complexes, while trying to decide what to do with the body.

Two days after the killing, McClure took Tim Badilo’s car — with Tim Badilo’s body still in the trunk — to a gas-well road off Bell Wick Road in Hubbard Township, the statements say.

There, he burned the body while it still lay in the trunk by pouring gasoline on it.