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Prosecutors detail evidence against Seman
By JOE GORMAN
and PETER H. MILLIKEN
news@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Prosecutors discuss evidence in Seman case
Video
Dawn Cantalamessa, Jennfier McLaughlin, and Mike Yacovone discuss the evidence that would have been used in the case against Robert Seman.
Seman suicide
Video Set
Dawn Cantala-messa has prosecuted a lot of murderers in her time as an assistant prosecutor in Mahoning County.
Tuesday, she said during a news conference, none of them were as evil as Robert Seman, who committed suicide Monday by leaping to his death inside the Mahoning County Courthouse.
Video: Prosecutors Discuss Evidence in Seman Case
He had just attended a pretrial hearing in his death- penalty case for the murders of Corinne Gump, 10, and her grandparents, William and Judith Schmidt, during a March 30, 2015, arson at the Schmidt’s Powers Way home.
“I think it’s the most cold, calculated murder we’ve seen in all the years I’ve been here,” Cantalamessa said.
But Thomas Zena, a defense lawyer for Seman, said the defense would not have gone into the trial empty-handed.
“I’m not attempting to say that a jury may not have found him guilty,” Zena said. “I’m trying to tell you that there were things in this case that could have been brought out at trial that just show something on the other side ...
“I think the general feeling in the community is that the defense had absolutely nothing (to present in the trial), and that was not true,” Zena told a reporter after the prosecutors’ news conference.
Flanked by her colleagues Michael Yacovone and Jennifer McLaughlin, Cantalamessa went over the evidence prosecutors would have presented in the case against Seman, which had been set to begin with jury orientation today in Portage County Common Pleas Court.
Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court moved the trial after two attempts at picking a jury in Mahoning County failed and defense attorneys asked for a change of venue.
Also on display was evidence that would have been shown to jurors, including gas cans found at the scene, gloves with Seman’s DNA found at the scene, pictures of burns on Seman’s face that surfaced two days after the fire and makeup he bought to cover the burns.
As to prosecutors’ contention that Seman broke his electronically-monitored house arrest to set the fatal fire, Zena observed: “Every part of the electronic monitoring device said he was home.” Such ankle-mounted devices are difficult to remove and show evidence when they’re tampered with, he added.
The defense provided an alibi that Seman was home on the morning of the fire, so he could not have been at the fire scene. Prosecutors had no witnesses that would have said they saw Seman at the fire scene, Zena noted.
Zena also addressed the DNA in the plastic glove found with a gasoline can at the fire scene.
“There was a plastic glove sitting on the gas can with gas in it – a latex glove surrounded by burned and charred material. This didn’t have one mark on it. Not only that, the gas didn’t explode,” Zena said.
“We’re saying we don’t know how that got there, but it couldn’t have gotten there before (or during) the fire, or the glove would have melted, and the gas can would have exploded,” he added.
FROM THE START
Cantalamessa said that Seman was a suspect in the fire from the start because he clearly had a motive: to prevent Corinne from testifying against him in a rape trial that was to begin the day the fire was set. Seman was free on $200,000 bond in the rape case.
Two things worked against him, however.
One, as he sat in court waiting for the rape case to be dismissed because Corinne was dead, his ex-wife told prosecutors Seman had tried to bribe her into changing her testimony in Corinne’s rape case to be favorable to him.
That was enough to have Judge Sweeney revoke his bond.
“Without her coming to court, he could’ve walked out of court that day,” Yacovone said.
Cantalamessa said Seman came to court with makeup used to camouflage burns he received when he set the fire. Cantalamessa said the makeup was found in Seman’s car when he was taken into custody in court and police found receipts and later video of Seman purchasing the makeup.
He told employees at the Walgreens in Austintown where he bought the makeup that he had burned himself setting some trash on fire and that he needed to mask the burns because he had a “jury thing,” Cantalamessa said.
On April 1, 2015, Seman complained of discomfort at the jail, which led to an examination where corrections officers found flash burns on his face. Cantalamessa said the jail doctor was set to testify that the burns are common when people set fires and the flames suddenly flash up in their face.
It was then, Cantalamessa said, that authorities knew Seman most likely set the fire.
“As soon as we found the burns on his face, we knew,” Cantalamessa said. “He was the guy who had the best motive of anyone in Mahoning County to see this fire happen,” she added.
Seman went to the drug store to buy makeup because of acne on his nose, Zena said, adding that the makeup was “for light cover” and would not have been sufficient to cover any fire burns.
“We (the defense) had a fire expert, a burn expert, one of the top in the country, coming in to say that these were absolutely chemical burns,” and not fire burns, Zena explained.
Seman reported that someone who was upset with him, not a sheriff’s deputy, threw jail cleaning chemicals in his face at the jail, Zena said.
SEARCH WARRANT
The burns were enough for a search warrant to be secured and authorities searched Seman’s Green Township home. In a washer they found clothes that were tested and later found to have gasoline on them.
They also found several gas cans at Seman’s home that matched two gas cans that were found propped against the back of the home on Powers Way that were found by firefighters.
Also found at the Powers Way home was a work glove stuffed in a latex glove. Those gloves were tested and Seman’s DNA was found in one of the gloves, Cantalamessa said.
Cantalamessa theorized that Seman tried to light the fire, it flashed and burned him, and he left in pain, leaving the gas cans and glove at the scene.
“If that hadn’t blown up in his face we might not even be here,” Cantalamessa said.
City fire department investigators Capt. Alvin Ware and Capt. Kurt Wright took samples in the basement, and they tested positive for an accelerant, Cantalamessa said. Ware said Tuesday that the basement was the worst place to set a fire from a firefighter’s point of view. Ware said a fire in a basement is tricky because firefighters only have one way to get in and fight it.
Ware said Corinne and the Schmidts never had a chance.
“It looked like he [Seman] knew what he was doing,” Ware said. “They were trapped.”
Cantalamessa said she was concerned that even though Seman wore an electronic monitoring bracelet as part of his bond, he seemed to travel wherever he wanted. He could call the monitoring service, for example, and be allowed to go out and buy fast food. On the day of the fire, Seman is clearly shown on security footage at Walgreens, though the monitor detection had him at home.
She said prosecutors are still not sure how he was able to get to the Powers Way scene that morning without being detected.
McLaughlin said she does not want people to forget Corinne or the Schmidts. She said the Schmidts helped Corinne out when she came to the court shortly before her rape case was to begin and helped her prepare to testify.
McLaughlin said that Seman was accused of raping Corinne from the time she was 5 until she was 9 years old. Before the rape case, the prosecutors all said Seman was desperate and kept telling his ex-wife prosecutors had no other evidence than Corinne’s word.
“He kept saying, ‘All they have is Corinne,’” McLaughlin said.
Yacovone said Seman figured that with Corinne gone, the case would be over and he would be free.
“He fully expected to be back home that day,” Yacovone said.
MONDAY HEARING
Zena said he spoke to his client Monday after a brief hearing before Judge Sweeney, which is why he was in the courthouse in the first place, and Seman asked him what would happen if there was a mistrial. Zena said he told Seman there would be no mistrial this time and there were enough jurors to try the case and Seman appeared to take that in stride. The two joked for a brief time, including about the tie Seman was wearing. It was a couple of minutes later that Seman leaped to his death.
Cantalamessa said Seman’s state of mind before the fire can be found in his meticulous planning of the blaze, of purchasing the materials necessary and the lengths he went to cover it up.
“Think of how many things you would have to think of ahead of time,” Cantalamessa said.
She credited an investigation by Youngstown police Detective Sgt. Dave Sweeney as well as the city fire department, the state fire marshal, the county sheriff’s office and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation for gathering the evidence that would be needed to prove Seman’s guilt.
She said it was decided to hold the press conference so the public would know that there was no doubt of Seman’s guilt.
Ware said he is glad the case is over but he was looking forward to the trial. He said he is sure a jury would have found Seman guilty.
“We had a good case,” Ware said.