Thrust into idled murder case, retired judge jump-starts justice

Given the speedy and matter- of-fact management of one of the Mahoning Valley’s longest and most controversial murder cases in recent memory, is it any wonder that voters of Stark County handily re-elected Common Pleas Court Judge Virgil Lee Sinclair Jr. to four consecutive six-year terms to the Canton-based court?

Clearly, Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor made an excellent judgment the first week of summer in appointing Sinclair, one of this state’s most honored and scholarly retired jurists, to the Vivian Martin murder case. After four long years of delays, continuances and other anguishing stalls, Sinclair advanced the case to closure, convictions and sentencing by the first week of fall.

His prompt attention to the constitutional rights of defendants to a speedy trial and to the statutory rights of victims to fair and compassionate treatment serve as a model for judges in all jurisdictions in our region.

ABOUT THE CASE

His case had its beginnings Sept. 20, 2010, before his retirement from Stark County Common Pleas Court. Youngstown police say 67-year-old real-estate agent Martin was then lured to a home she was trying to sell on Nelson Avenue by Robert Brooks, 29, and Grant Cooper, 26, who then killed her by strangulation and set the house on fire to cover up the crime. For their part, city police commendably and quickly investigated the case and brought Brooks and Cooper to arraignment and indictment within three weeks of the grisly crime.

Unfortunately for the accused, and more importantly for the family and friends of the victim, that speed slowed to a tortoiselike crawl once the case entered the halls of the Mahoning County Courthouse.

Under the management of now retired Common Pleas Court Judge James C. Evans, the case endured delay after delay as Judge Evans granted continuance after continuance for defense attorneys and prosecutors. Though death penalty implications tied to the crime required serious and thorough attention to all details and evidence, few reasons were offered for what many interpreted as unnecessary and prolonged stonewalling of the case.

IMPACT OF SINCLAIR INTERVENTION

Enter Judge Sinclair. In the span of three months, the seasoned jurist expedited the case, receiving guilty pleas from the defendants, meting out relatively tough sentences for their abominable crimes and giving the family of Martin a long-delayed and deserved sense of closure and comfort.

In so doing, Sinclair also saved Mahoning County taxpayers the great expense of two potentially long, drawn-out trials for each of the defendants. He also prevented additional delays that ultimately could have led to dropping of the charges under the U.S. Constitution’s Sixth Amendment guarantee of a speedy public trial for all individuals accused of crimes against the state. In short, Sinclair prevented a potentially capital miscarriage of justice.

Through his priority commitment to bring closure to the case for Martin’s family, friends and associates, Sinclair proved he had a thorough knowledge of and sincere respect for Ohio’s statutes governing the rights of crime victims, some of which appeared to have been given short shrift during the agonizingly long four-year wait for court action. Other judges should emulate Sinclair in his obviously clear understanding of the finer points of Ohio Revised Code Chapter 2930, which spells out the state’s obligations to crime victims and their loved ones.

Martin family members can thank Sinclair for his exemplary case-management skills and his astute knowledge of death-penalty cases. In fact, Sinclair authored a major section of the treatise “Presiding Over A Capital Case,” the nation’s leading textbook on death-penalty litigation. It’s no wonder then that Sinclair’s judicial demeanor served as a textbook example of the importance of this maxim of American jurisprudence: Justice delayed is justice denied.