Juror in sledghammer case faces contempt charge

Juror in sledghammer case faces contempt charge

AKRON

A juror excused during an Ohio murder trial is facing a criminal contempt charge.

Marla Lloyd of Akron was ordered by Common Pleas Judge Tom Parker to appear at a Feb. 17 hearing to answer to the charge.

Her attorney, Walter Madison, says she would never intentionally defy a court order.

Parker removed Lloyd from the jury months ago as it was deliberating charges against Shawn Ford Jr. in the sledgehammer beatings of a New Franklin couple. The judge cited her Facebook connections with some prosecutors.

The jury convicted Ford. Then in a newspaper story published during the sentencing phase, Lloyd was critical of the jurors and the judge. The jury has recommended sentences but Ford hasn’t been sentenced yet.

Man arrested in slaying of elderly Ohio couple

COSHOCTON

Authorities say one man has been arrested and another is being sought in the abduction and slaying of an elderly couple whose bodies were found in their burned-out car.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said a task force arrested 21-year-old Jeffery Stewart of New Philadelphia on Saturday and charged him with murder.

Stewart was identified with help from the public after the task force released a surveillance photo of him. He’s being held in the Tuscarawas County jail.

Authorities said Stewart made statements that led to an arrest warrant being issued for 29-year-old Robert Clark of Dennison. Police say he should be considered armed and dangerous.

Police said they believe Stewart and Clark are responsible for the deaths of 88-year-old Doyle Chumney of Strasburg and his 79-year-old wife, Lillian. They were reported missing on Jan. 21. Their bodies were found the next day in the burned car in Bakersville.

NE Ohio man gets 3 years fin fatal heroin-overdose case

AKRON

A Northeast Ohio man who gave heroin to a woman who later died from an overdose has been sentenced to three years in a state prison.Twenty-two-year-old Jack Shaffer turned and apologized to the family of Julia Robbins in the sentencing hearing this past week in Akron.

Shaffer had pleaded guilty in December to involuntary manslaughter and corrupting another with drugs in connection with Julia Robbins’ death last March.

Prosecutors say Shaffer bought the heroin from another man and gave it to the 21-year-old Robbins, who died from an overdose of heroin and fentanyl.

The Northeast Ohio Media Groupreported that the 21-year-old man who allegedly sold the heroin to Shaffer is scheduled to stand trial in February on a drug-trafficking charge.

New warden assigned to Lima

LIMA

A new warden has been assigned to take over at an Ohio prison where a convicted school shooter and two other Ohio inmates managed to escape last September.

The state’s prisons department reassigned the warden at its Lima prison and demoted the deputy warden after the escape by Chardon High School shooter T.J. Lane and two other inmates. An investigation revealed that the three inmates managed to get inside a prison maintenance area and spent several months building a makeshift ladder that they used in the escape.

Vindicator wire reports