Court says appeal of convicted Ohio killer of 3 can continue

COLUMBUS (AP) — An inmate who has long maintained his innocence in the 1994 slaying of three people can pursue a new trial based on what his attorneys argue was wrongfully suppressed evidence, a federal appeals court ruled.

Defendant Kevin Keith was convicted and sentenced to death in the shooting of two women and a 4-year-old girl in what prosecutors said was retaliation for his arrest in a northern Ohio drug sweep.

Keith pointed to alibi witnesses who placed him elsewhere, an alternative suspect and a host of inconsistencies in the evidence against him. Then-Gov. Ted Strickland commuted Keith’s sentence to life without parole in 2010, citing questions about the evidence and a “troubling” failure to investigate other suspects.

Several courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have rejected Keith’s claims over the years. But on Friday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said “no reasonable fact finder would have found him guilty” based on evidence his attorneys argue was wrongfully kept from a jury.

The evidence includes the personnel file of a state forensics investigator who worked on his case containing allegations she had a habit of providing police departments answers they wanted in cases, and a copy of radio dispatch logs from the Bucyrus Police Department.

The dispatch logs are important because authorities have said they first obtained Keith’s name from a hospital nurse who called and said a shooting victim had identified Keith as the perpetrator.

But the logs do not include any calls from a nurse. The words “ignore for now” were also written at the top of a subpoena seeking the log at the time, according to court documents.

The personnel file is that of Michele Yezzo, a now-retired forensics analyst with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification. Keith’s attorneys first learned of the file two years ago.

Yezzo’s “findings and conclusions regarding evidence may be suspect. She will stretch the truth to satisfy a department,” according to a 1989 memo in the file.