Ohio Supreme Court schedules execution date for Stanley Adams in 2020

Staff report

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Supreme Court has set an execution date for Stanley Adams, who was convicted in the killing of a Warren woman and the rape and murder of her daughter nearly 18 years ago.

Adams, 50, is to be put to death April 16, 2020.

Adams murdered Esther Cook, 43, by beating her to death and raped and murdered Ashley Cook, 12, in their Dickey Avenue Northwest home Oct. 11, 1999. He killed Ashley by strangling her with an electrical cord. Adams, of Champion, and his girlfriend lived with Cook and her daughter earlier in 1999.

The Ohio Supreme Court earlier affirmed Adams’ death sentence.

In a separate case, Adams also was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the rape and murder of 40-year-old Roslyn Taylor of Hubbard Township. According to documents, her “partially clad body was discovered ... in a fire-damaged automobile.”

In a filing with the state’s high court earlier this year, the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office noted that Adams has “exhausted all his state and federal court reviews of his conviction and death sentence and has not sought a stay.”

Adams was sentenced to death by Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, who presided over the trial in 2001.

County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, who was lead prosecutor in the case, said he is pleased the execution date has been set and is hopeful executions in Ohio will resume soon.

In January, a federal magistrate blocked three executions scheduled this year based on objections to the state’s current lethal-injection process.

Trumbull County has eight inmates on death row, according to Vindicator files: Adams, Sean Carter, Danny Lee Hill, Nathaniel Jackson, Charles Lorraine, Donna Roberts, Andre Williams and David Martin.

The state is supposed to restart lethal injections next month, with the planned execution of Ronald Phillips on May 10, after a delay of several years as prison officials worked to resolve legal challenges and other issues related to Ohio’s lethal-injection procedures.

Phillips, convicted in the rape and murder of an Akron girl in 1993, could see his execution delayed again, however, as court proceedings continue.

More than 30 executions are scheduled through early 2021.