Ohio rejects parole for killer Christopher Ferrell

Staff report

WARREN

The Ohio Parole Board has refused parole for Christopher Ferrell, 37, a former Mineral Ridge man convicted of killing a 19-year-old Newton Township man during a February 1992 robbery.

Ferrell will remain in prison until at least July 2018.

Ferrell and 13-year-old Thomas Elsmore of Austintown each fired a shot into the head of Douglas Lash, who had just returned home from his grocery-store job when he spotted youths stealing from his home, according to newspaper accounts.

Elsmore was tried as a juvenile and ordered to remain in juvenile detention until age 21.

Ferrell was 17 at the time of the murder and was among a band of youths responsible for a string of burglaries throughout Western Pennsylvania and Trumbull, Portage and Geauga counties in Ohio, Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said.