Trumbull prosecutor wants double murderer to remain in prison

By Ed Runyan | March 5, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

WARREN

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins is again opposing parole for Van G. Fickes, 51, who killed his mother and brother in 1983. His next parole hearing comes up in April.

Watkins said in a recent letter to the parole board that several Fickes family members have expressed fear of Fickes being released from prison.

“They have a genuine fear that Fickes will do harm to them or others,” Watkins said, adding that Fickes is “one depraved heartless killer that must not be given the opportunity to kill again.”

Fickes was sentenced in July 1985 to 30 years to life in prison for killing his mother, Christine Fickes, 42, and his brother, Ronald Fickes, 24, in their home on West Market Street on Oct. 10, 1983.

“In my opinion, Van Fickes was, is and always will be, a sociopathic personality who will present an extreme danger to the community if released,” Watkins wrote the last time Fickes was eligible for parole in 2010.

Watkins said prosecutors were able to use only circumstantial evidence during the Fickes trial, in part because Judge David F. McLain of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court ruled that the state could not use gunshot-residue evidence and statements made by Fickes. That was because police did not have probable cause when they took him to the police station for questioning.

According to Watkins, who personally prosecuted the case, Fickes told investigators prior to submitting to a gunshot-residue test, that he had handled firecrackers and new shotgun shells the day before the murders because he was “making a bomb for his birthday.”

The Fickes conviction “has stood the test of time and appeal,” Watkins said in the letter, adding that “guys who fantasize [about] making bombs don’t pass the smell test at this time in our history.”

Fickes was 19 at the time of the murders. Both victims died from separate shotgun blasts to the back of the head. Ronald Fickes was found dead in bed; Christine Fickes was found dead on the kitchen floor.