Tuesday, November 14, 2017
WARREN
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, who will travel to Columbus today to oppose parole for two Trumbull County men convicted of a 1988 Weathersfield Township murder, has proposed a novel idea to the Ohio Parole Board.
In a letter to the parole board, Watkins has asked that the prison system administer lie-detector tests paid for by Trumbull County to Jeff McClure, 48, and Mark Badilo, 49, before they would be released on parole.
Badilo and McClure were convicted in 1992 of killing Badilo’s brother, Tim Badilo, 23, of Deforest Road, on Feb. 24, 1988, at McClure’s house on Broadway Street in Weathersfield Township. His body was found in a burned car in Hubbard Township. Mark Badilo and McClure were 19.
Watkins, Hubbard Township Police Chief Todd Coonce and former Howland Township Police Chief Paul Monroe (now Trumbull sheriff) have opposed Badilo’s and McClure’s release partly because of the danger they feel there would be to a witness whose testimony led to their conviction.
But Watkins wrote that aspects of the case still don’t “add up or make sense” to him. “I think there is more behind this murder than has been disclosed,” Watkins said.
Watkins has proposed that Badilo and McClure be required to answer three questions on a lie-detector test.
Read what they are and more about the case in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.