Judge rules death-row inmate can’t have hearing regarding his attorneys

Staff report

WARREN

A judge has ruled that death-row inmate David Martin of Cleveland can’t have a hearing to try to prove he received ineffective assistance from his attorneys in his 2014 murder trial.

Martin, 32, who killed Jeremy Cole, 21, and tried to kill Melissa Putnam, then 27, in a house on Oak Street Southwest in 2012, argued his attorneys were ineffective because they allowed one man to remain on the jury panel despite answers he gave during jury selection.

The juror, a black male, said he knew Cole because he worked with him at one time and had actually spoken with Cole the day Cole was killed, Martin’s current attorney, John B. Juhasz, said in a filing.

When asked about the death penalty, the prospective juror said, “I like it,” Juhasz said.

The Trumbull County Prosecutor’s office said in a filing that attorneys make decisions about which jurors to keep and which ones to dismiss based on many factors, including “demeanor, tone, eye contact, body language and all the other nonverbal cues” that may outweigh the things the prospective juror says.

The filing says “it is clear that [Martin’s attorneys] felt [the juror in question] would be beneficial to their case.”

Judge Andrew Logan said in a judgment entry it is easy to second-guess decisions attorneys make as to keeping or dismissing certain jurors, but “this is a matter of strategy and opinion.” He added that “sensory impressions” the attorneys receive from the prospective jurors are also important.

Judge Logan sentenced Martin to the death penalty and 61 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of aggravated murder and other crimes.