Pretrial hearing heard in Seman case

January 26, 2017 at 12:07a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Judge Maureen Sweeney said she wants to wait before deciding if the death penalty trial of Robert Seman should be moved from Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The judge said in a pretrial hearing Wednesday that she wants to review the questionnaires prospective jurors will fill out when they report Feb. 3 for duty in the case before making any decision.

Seman could face the death penalty if convicted of the March 30, 2015, deaths of Corinne Gump, 10, and her grandparents, William and Judith Schmidt, during an arson at their Powers Way home just hours before Seman was to go on trial on a charge he raped the girl. Seman was free on $200,000 bond at the time of the fire.

Defense attorneys have asked for a change of venue.

The attorneys also discussed whether a bribery allegation against Seman also should be introduced at trial. Seman is accused of trying to bribe his ex-wife the day before the fire to change her testimony in the rape trial.

Jurors had reported for orientation in September, but the jury-selection process was halted after just a day because of inappropriate conversations between prospective jurors. For the new jury pool, Judge Sweeney is implementing several measures to ensure any interactions among jurors is limited.

Prosecutors indicted Seman on a separate bribery charge that was filed before the charges relating to the arson and murders.

Defense attorney Lynn Maro said the bribery allegations should not be allowed to be heard by a jury because they are prejudicial against her client, especially because it is not included in the present case against him.

“It goes beyond what is appropriate,” Maro said. “They chose to put the bribery charge on the back burner.”

Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said that jurors should be allowed to hear the bribery allegations because it would show that he had a guilty state of mind and it would also go toward his motive, because when the bribe wasn’t accepted, he decided to set the fire so Gump could not testify against him.

Judge Sweeney said she will issue her ruling by the next pretrial hearing in the case Wednesday.