Supporters: Exonerate Bunch for 2001 rape

By JUSTIN DENNIS

jdennis@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

“Free Chaz Bunch” read signs held by some of the nearly 20 people who rallied near the steps of the Mahoning County Courthouse.

Bunch, 34, and three others were convicted in the rape and robbery of a 21-year-old Boardman woman in 2001, when Bunch was 16. Bunch is now serving an 89-year sentence in Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, but he is set for a resentencing hearing Sept. 6 before Judge Maureen Sweeney of county common pleas court due to U.S. Supreme Court revisions on effective life sentences for juveniles.

But Bunch’s supporters Friday afternoon said the man was wrongfully convicted and hope he’ll be exonerated at a new trial.

“Chaz has done 18 years. He’s been in prison longer than he was free,” said

Tahiyrah Ali of the Cincinnati-based Free Ohio Movement.

Ali said the group, which advocates for incarcerated citizens, has been focusing on juveniles serving life sentences, after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled prison sentences for nonhomicide crimes that exceed a juvenile convict’s life expectancy are cruel and unusual.

Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of common pleas court in 2002 sentenced Bunch’s co-defendant Brandon Moore to 141 years, which was later reduced to 112 years. That sentence was ultimately vacated by the state’s high court in March 2018, and he was resentenced last year to 50 years.

Moore, Bunch and two other co-defendants Jamar Callier and Andre Bundy kidnapped the Youngstown State University student in 2001. Moore and Bunch took turns raping the woman at gunpoint, according to testimony.

Ali said Bunch has maintained his innocence in the rape and robbery.

She also claimed DNA evidence did not link Bunch to the rape – only Moore – and the victim testified she was raped only by Moore. A finding of fact filed in Bunch’s case in January 2018, however, shows the woman and Callier both identified Bunch during trial.

County Prosecutor Paul Gains declined to comment specifically about the evidence in the case or the rally.

“This man was convicted, and there was solid evidence. All the courts that looked at it agreed with the conviction,” he told The Vindicator.

Judge Krichbaum recused himself from presiding over Moore and Bunch’s resentencing hearings after rejecting petitions for his recusal, records show.

“Some cases in the past have shown [Judge Krichbaum] has extreme prejudice when it comes to black males,” Ali said. “There are people with similar charges who have done a quarter of the time that Chaz has been given.”

Ali added she feels news media coverage on Bunch’s case was unfair – that he was tried in the papers before his case even went to court.

“We want to make sure that … this DNA evidence is not going to be ignored this time and that he will be exonerated,” Ali added.

Bunch appealed for post-conviction relief in January 2018 based on additional evidentiary findings, court records show. That appellate case is pending and set to resume after his resentencing.