Judge disputes prosecutors’ claims

Associated Press

AKRON

A judge overseeing the murder case of a man accused of killing four people inside an Akron home said Friday she should not be disqualified from presiding at his trial.

Summit County Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands filed a response with the Ohio Supreme Court to counter prosecutors’ claims she has shown bias in the aggravated-murder case of Deshanon Haywood, 22, of Akron.

Prosecutors claim Judge Rowlands urged them to drop death-penalty specifications in Haywood’s case. Haywood faces multiple counts of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping in the drug-related shooting deaths of four people.

Judge Rowlands’ motion denies that she had any improper conversations with victims’ families, says she ruled correctly when she denied a prosecutor’s attempt to strike a juror from the panel and maintains that her conversation with Haywood about his plea options came at his attorney’s request.

Brad Gessner, chief counsel in the Summit County prosecutor’s office, and Brian LoPrinzi, the lead prosecutor in the Haywood case, filed a motion with the Supreme Court to disqualify Judge Rowlands on Thursday, the day opening statements were scheduled to begin.

Gessner wrote in an affidavit that Judge Rowlands called him July 3 and said the Supreme Court’s death-penalty commission would never allow Haywood to be put to death. Gessner also wrote that Judge Rowlands told him a trial without the death-penalty specifications would take two weeks instead of eight and save money.

In her response to the Supreme Court, Judge Rowlands wrote that her conversation with Gessner was routine case-management and that Gessner never questioned her impartiality at the time.

The judge acknowledged that LoPrinzi asked her on Tuesday not to swear in the jury because he wanted to consider whether he should file an affidavit of prejudice for Judge Rowlands not allowing him to strike a black juror from the panel. The juror had written on a questionnaire that he opposed the death penalty. Judge Rowlands wrote that she agreed to give LoPrinzi the time he requested and ordered the jury to return Thursday.

“There is no evidence to demonstrate or suggest bias or prejudice against the State,” Judge Rowlands wrote.

Judge Rowlands presided over the trial of Haywood’s co-defendant, Derrick Brantley, 22, who also faced the death penalty. Though the jury convicted him of aggravated murder and other charges, it voted against recommending the death penalty and she sentenced him to four-consecutive life terms.