Friday, August 23, 2019
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Of all of the letters Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins has written opposing parole for people convicted of a horrible crime, the one in 2015 involving rapist David Lockney contained possibly the most pained cry of concern yet.
“What Lockney did repeatedly to [the victim] and the sheer magnitude of the intentional violence on her little body parts was so horrific that words cannot serve to give a true explanation of the pain and suffering [she] endured,” Watkins said.
“Imagine a 7-year-old child being repeatedly raped by her own father; and then, when very ill from injuries her little body received during the rapes, that same father denied her medical treatment. He just let her suffer.”
Lockney, 63, formerly of Lordstown, is eligible for parole again in September.
In the letter he wrote Monday, he summarized the letters he wrote in 2002, 2011 and 2015 opposing Lockney’s parole.
He asked the parole board to read the 2015 letter “outlining the pure evil involved in this matter” and giving parole board members the medical records and photos “showing the magnitude of injuries and suffering this little girl endured.”
Some members of the parole board were not on the panel the last time in 2015.
Watkins noted that the victim “personally expressed very clearly to the board in 2002 her fear for herself and other children if her father would be released,” and she would come to Columbus again to testify if necessary.
“Lockney is the worst form of a pedophile because of his willingness to cause serious pain, injury and suffering,” Watkins said.
In 1987 when Lockney committed his crimes, the law did not allow for life without the possibility of parole. He got four life prison sentences for four rapes and attempted rape and has served 32 years so far.
“The maximum penalty for what he did today would mean no parole for life,” Watkins said. “Hopefully all the new parole board members will agree after reading all of the materials in this case and realize how horrific Lockney’s crimes were just as prior boards did when denying Lockney’s parole in the past.
“This easily could have been a homicide case,” he added. “If this does not qualify for a true life imprisonment, then there may never be one.”