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Judge mulls motions on eve of jurors reporting in Seman case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Judge Maureen Sweeney has several pending motions to ponder less than 48 hours before jurors report to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for orientation in the capital murder case of Robert Seman.
In a hearing Wednesday, attorneys for both sides discussed a defense motion to continue the trial set with jury selection to begin Monday.
Also before her are motions on witnesses and testimony about a rape Seman is alleged to have committed before the murders of Corrine Gump, 10, and her grandparents, William and Judith Schmidt, in an arson March 30, 2015, at their Powers Way home the day Seman was to go on trial on a charge of raping the girl. Seman, 47, of Green, was free on bond at the time.
He faces 10 counts of aggravated murder and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Defense attorneys asked for the case to be continued because prosecutors plan to use testimony based on a video Gump made to investigators about the rape.
Prosecutors said they will not use the video itself, but will instead use testimony from witnesses to tell jurors about the rape allegations.
Defense attorneys said they were not informed of the video until recently and do not have enough time to study that evidence and prepare a defense strategy for it.
They also renewed objections to allowing specific details about the rapes Seman is accused of committing, saying that it will prejudice jurors against their client.
“The body of evidence [in the previous case] is not needed in this case,” said defense lawyer Tom Zena. He said all prosecutors need to do is show that Gump was the victim of a crime and also a witness.
Several of the motions heard over the last several weeks revolve around the rape case, which prosecutors say is the motive for Seman setting the fire and also qualifies him for the death penalty because he is accused of killing a victim or witness to a crime.
Defense attorneys also wanted access to portions of a video from a drug store about 7:43 a.m. the day of the fire that show Seman inside making a purchase.
Reports have said Seman purchased cosmetics to cover up burns he received in starting the fire before he went to court for the rape case. Defense attorneys said they wanted a portion of the video that showed the cosmetics aisle that time of morning but prosecutors said it does not exist, even though a DVD given to attorneys said it did. Prosecutors agreed to have the store sign an affidavit saying that the portion of the video defense attorneys want does not exist.
Attorneys also clashed over a prosecution rebuttal witness who is expected to testify she was on the same type of electronic monitoring system for house arrest that Seman was on at the time of the crime. The witness is expected to say she was able to take her bracelet off without anyone knowing.
Zena said “empirical evidence” from monitoring records for the bracelet show that Seman never stepped beyond the bounds imposed by the house arrest. He said allowing the witness to testify in the face of that evidence will also be prejudicial against his client.