Attorney presents 6 reasons Ferrara multiple murder conviction should be overturned

YOUNGSTOWN

A lawyer for the man convicted in 2013 of the murder of a Canfield Township family 39 years earlier laid out six reasons today why his client’s conviction should be overturned.

Atty. J. Gerald Ingram filed the brief of the appeal for James Ferrara, who was convicted of three counts of aggravated murder Nov. 21, 2013, for the deaths of 33-year-old Benjamin Marsh, his 32-year-old wife Marilyn and the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, Heather, inside their South Turner Road home on Dec. 13, 1974. A 1-year-old son, Christopher, was found unharmed nearly a day later.

Ingram said that the trial court erred by abusing its discretion and allowing fingerprint evidence into the trial without properly authenticating it; allowed hearsay evidence regarding ballistic evidence from the crime scene collected in 1976; there was prosecutorial misconduct because Ingram said former assistant county Rebecca Doherty commented on Ferrara invoking his right not to testify, which violated his right to a fair trial; that there was not enough evidence to convict Ferrara on three counts of aggravated murder, which is also the fifth prong of his appeal; and defense counsel failed to object to ballistic evidence collected in 1976 and did not challenge how the prosecution misled jurors when presenting testimony of further ballistic tests performed in 2010.

Read more about the case in Tuesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.