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Defense attorneys want evidence suppressed before Sean Clemens’ trial
WARREN
Sean Clemens’ lawyers attempted to suppress certain pieces of evidence from being used in a trial in an eight-hour hearing Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Clemens, 33, is charged with killing his neighbor Jane Larue Brown, 84, in the early morning of April 24, 2017. Police said Clemens broke into Brown’s house, beat her with a hand shovel from her garden and cut her neck with a knife before he loaded up Brown’s Cadillac with her electronics and left.
Police said he then dropped off the electronics at his house, drove the Cadillac to the woods behind his property and set the car on fire.
Clemens admitted to the crimes in a recorded interview with the police the same day.
Prosecutors Christopher Becker and Diane Barber showed the nearly hourlong video of the police interview with Clemens during the hearing.
The video stirred emotions in the courtroom, as families cried at the description of Brown’s death. Clemens was visibly shaken watching the video in the courtroom.
In the video, Clemens is given his rights and offered water or coffee before Detective Michael Yannucci of the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office and Liberty Detective Ray Buhala begin questioning him. At first, Clemens denied having any idea what happened to Brown.
“People are grieving the loss of their loved one today. We need to get answers for the family,” Yannucci said in the April 24 video.
Clemens began crying and admitted to the crime. He said he took 10 Xanax pills the night before and could barely remember what happened. When police asked why he did it, he wailed that he didn’t know, and repeatedly asked them to take him to jail.
“I just ruined my life all over some [expletive] Xanax,” he cried.
Clemens’ attorneys – Matthew Pentz and David Rouzzo of the Ohio Public Defender’s Office – want the confession disallowed because they question whether their client was under the influence of drugs and impaired at the time.
Pentz and Rouzzo also argued evidence was unlawfully seized at Brown’s house on 503 Church Hill-Hubbard Road. They said Cortland police officer David Morris was out of his jurisdiction when he took dog hair as evidence.
Clemens’ dogs were involved because they rode in the Cadillac with Clemens when he drove to the woods. When officials conducted a search of Clemens’ house, they noticed one dog had blood on his fur and the other had singed fur.
Sheriff Paul Monroe said, however, Morris was deputized, so prosecutors say the evidence collection was lawful.
Defense attorneys also argued they don’t think the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s blood tests were conclusive. The attorneys also questioned Liberty Officer Pete D’Angelo, who had been the first to observe bloody marks on the back door of Clemens’ breezeway on 420 Church Hill-Hubbard Road. They asked him how he knew the marks were fresh.
D’Angelo responded he has been an officer for 33 years and has seen both fresh and old blood several times.
Judge W. Wyatt McKay gave the defense attorneys and prosecutors until the middle of April to submit briefs before he would make a decision to suppress any evidence.