Supreme Court rulings influenced Clemens' sentence offer

WARREN

Sean Clemens exhibited unthinkable brutality the morning he killed his neighbor, Jane LaRue Brown, 84, attacking her in her bed with a knife and garden trowel after breaking into her home. He took a television and her leased Cadillac when he left.

The 34-year-old Clemens’ attempts to cover up his actions, which he said were fueled by use of the prescription drug Xanax, were childlike.

He left a sledge hammer from his home at the murder scene. He burned himself while setting fire to the victim’s vehicle in a wooded area behind his house, told a co-worker shortly afterward what he had done, then asked him not to tell.

Brown was an active, well-liked and well-known former restaurant manager. “She died a horrific death at his hands,” one of her daughters, Cynthia Jakubick, told Judge W. Wyatt McKay at Clemens’ plea and sentencing hearing in common pleas court.

Clemens’ crimes met all the requirements under Ohio law to warrant the death penalty.

But just as Clemens’ trial neared, prosecutors offered a plea deal. He could agree to life in prison without the possibility of parole and avoid the death penalty. He agreed and gave up most appeal rights.

Assistant Prosecutor Chris Becker said after Clemens’ sentencing prosecutors were willing to drop the death penalty against Clemens because recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings suggested some of the evidence gathered in the case might get tossed out.

Read more about the matter in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.