Warren killer to serve at least four more years

WARREN — Christopher W. Daniel, who has served 26 years of a 37-to-100-years sentence for murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary involving a 1988 attack on an elderly Warren couple, will serve at least four more years in prison.

Daniel, 46, will be eligible for his next parole hearing in July 2019 after the Ohio Parole Board refused him parole earlier this month.

Daniel and Andre Williams, 48, were convicted of killing George Melnick, 65, and assaulting Melnick’s wife, Katherine, 64, at their home on Wick Street Southeast.

Williams was sentenced to death in the slaying, but a federal appeals court indicated last month that an unspecified Ohio court failed to consider certain evidence relating to Williams’ intellectual abilties at age 15 that could be evidence that Williams is too intellectually disabled to be on death row for killing George Melnick.

The result could be that Williams could eventually be removed from death row.

Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County prosecutor, has told the parole board in the past that Daniel nearly killed Katherine when he hit her in the head with a brick as he and Williams entered the back of the home to commit a robbery.

Daniel, then 19, also assaulted Mrs. Melnick with an ax handle. The damage left her blind with permanent brain injuries, Watkins said.