Judge pushes back trial date in Canfield Township triple homicide

YOUNGSTOWN — Judge R. Scott Krichbaum has agreed to push back the trial date for a man accused of a triple homicide in 1974.

Krichbaum said this morning during a hearing for James Ferrara, 64, that he was tempted to dismiss the case because prosecutors failed to disclose about a thousand pages of evidence until Friday but did not dismiss because of court of appeals rulings that set the precedent for continuance instead of dismissal in such cases.

Ferrara is accused of killing Benjamin Marsh, 33; his wife Marilyn and daughter Heather, 4, inside their South Turner Road home in Canfield Township in December of 1974.

He was indicted by a grand jury in June. Detectives were able to match his fingerprints in 2009 with fingerprints found at the scene.

He is serving a sentence for a double homicide in the Columbus area in 1983.

Ferrara’s lawyer, Anthony Meranto, filed a motion to dismiss as well as a motion to continue. A motion to exhume possible suspects for DNA evidence filed by Meranto was also overruled by Krichbaum.