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Two additional attorneys added to Nasser Hamad’s defense team
David Doughten also represented Donna Roberts, Martin Yavorcik
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Two Cleveland attorneys have been added to the defense team of Nasser Hamad of Howland, including David Doughten, whose representation of Donna Roberts helped temporarily reverse her death sentence in the murder of her husband in 2001 in their Howland home.
Doughten and Atty. Robert Dixon filed a document April 19 in the case called an “appearance,” stating that they will be appearing on behalf of Hamad in his aggravated- murder case after being “retained by the defendant’s family.”
On the same day, they filed a motion requesting a status conference at which they could discuss motions, pretrial evidence and the trial schedule.
It adds that Doughten and Dixon anticipate a request for a “slight change” in the current trial date.
A short time later, Judge Ronald Rice changed the date of the final pretrial hearing from 1:30 p.m. May 18 to 1:30 p.m. May 17. The case is set for trial at 9 a.m. Sept. 18.
Neither filing mentions Atty. Geoffrey Oglesby of Sandusky, who has represented Hamad, 47, since just after he was charged in the Feb. 25 shooting deaths of two young men and the shootings of three other people who came to his house on state Route 46 in Howland in what police have called an ongoing dispute.
When contacted by phone Monday, Oglesby said he is unable to comment on the makeup of Hamad’s defense team because of the gag order imposed in the case by Judge Rice.
Oglesby pointed out that in the county where he has his offices, attorneys must file a withdrawal if they are no longer going to serve as a defendant’s counsel. There’s been no such filing in the Hamad case, according to the online docket in the Hamad case.
Hamad could get the death penalty if convicted of certain charges in the case.
Oglesby filed a number of motions shortly after he took over Hamad’s defense in early March. The judge denied most of them within several weeks.
In responding to one that asked the judge to disqualify himself and the prosecutor’s office from the case, Judge Rice said the idea was “meritless, frivolous and inflammatory.”
With Doughten as one of Roberts’ attorneys, her death sentence was vacated twice by Ohio Supreme Court justices and remanded to the trial court for resentencing, initially because prosecutors had assisted in writing the judge’s original opinion.
Roberts, 72, later successfully argued the judge in the case should have considered her history of depression, head injuries and other mitigating factors before handing down a death sentence.
In the latest case, Roberts’ legal counsel argued her death sentence should be vacated because the original judge had died, leaving a new judge to decide a death sentence without being involved in the original trial or hearing from Roberts directly.
Doughten is also the attorney for Martin Yavorcik, convicted last year for his involvement in the Oakhill Renaissance Place corruption scandal in Mahoning County and has represented a numerous other people at trial and on appeal during a long career.