Gullette spoke before the Ohio Parole Board Wednesday, June 17, on behalf of about 15 family members of Keene’s five victims who attended a clemency hearing for the ringleader of the worst murder spree in Dayton history, the 1992 “Christmas killings.”
Keene, now 35, is to be executed by lethal injection July 21 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville. He was 19 when the crimes took place.
Parole Board Chairwoman Cynthia Mausser said the board will make a recommendation on clemency to Gov. Ted Strickland on June 25. But it seems unlikely the board will recommend that Keene’s life be spared: At his request, his defense attorneys offered no argument in favor of clemency. Keene declined to be interviewed by parole board members on death row in Youngstown to make a case for clemency.
“He doesn’t want to cause his family and the victims’ families any more pain than he already has,” said Rachel Troutman of the Ohio Public Defender’s office. She said there will be no last-minute appeals.
Carley Ingram, appellate division chief for the Montgomery County prosecutor’s office, said Keene’s only concern has been for himself since he was charged with killing five of the six victims of the self-proclaimed Downtown Posse. The murder spree ran from Dec. 24-26, 1992.
“He’s shown no remorse,” Ingram said after the hearing. “In fact, the only expression of feeling we’ve seen from him is for his own predicament.”
Keene, who worked with three young co-conspirators, was convicted of aggravated murder in the slayings of Joseph Wilkerson, 34; Danita Gullette, 18; and Sarah Abraham, 38. When it appeared they would snitch on him, Keene was involved in the silencing of two acquaintances, Wendy Cottrill, 16, and Marvin Washington, 18. Washington was shot by co-conspirator DeMarcus Smith.
Laura Taylor, who was Keene’s girlfriend, killed a sixth victim, Richmond Maddox, 19.
“(Keene) personally pulled the trigger in four of the five killings (for which he was convicted),” Ingram told the parole board. “He couldn’t physically kill Marvin Washington because at the time he had a gun in Wendy Cottrill’s mouth.”
But Ingram said Keene was the leader who “called the shots” throughout the murder spree.
Smith and Taylor were juveniles at the time of the crime and thus not eligible for the death penalty. The other defendant, Heather Matthews, was indicted on two capital murder charges but was granted a plea agreement and testified against Keene and Taylor.
Smith, Taylor and Matthews all are serving prison sentences in excess of 100 years.
“These were cold, calculated killings,” Ingram said. “There is nothing in these crimes that calls out for mercy.”
Clemency hearings are routine in capital cases, but inmates usually make a plea for mercy. Keene declined even the standard death-row interview with a parole board member. Although a recommendation on clemency won’t be presented to Gov. Ted Strickland until June 25, it seems unlikely that the board will ask that Keene’s life be spared.
His attorney said Keene will make no last-minute legal appeals.
In her address to the parole board, Rhonda Gullette said Danita’s murder irreparably wounded her family.
“After this incident, my mother grieved herself to death,” she said. “I may look OK, but if you could open me up and see my broken heart, you’d see how much my 18-year-old sister meant to me.”
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