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RE: CLARKE/STRAUB MURDERS: CASE links and facts only
published 1/31/12
by Taylor Dungjen Toledo Blade
Sam Williams is a leader, a 24-year-old who has been accused by Toledo police of running a prostitution operation, who assaulted his ex-wife, and told an East Toledo woman he would shoot her and her son, who is now dating Mr. Williams' ex-wife.
But he's also a son. And a brother. And the father of two young children.
Cameo Pettaway is a follower, a 22-year-old accused of becoming physically violent with multiple women and who hit a man over the head with a bar stool. He and two others — including his brother — were charged with trafficking in marijuana when police stopped the car they were in for expired license plates. Officers found marijuana, a scale, and more than $15,000 in cash.
Mr. Pettaway is also a son, and a brother. He's the father of five children all under the age of 8.
The two are buddies who met when they were quite young. They grew up in the same eastside neighborhood and played football together — Mr. Williams was a lineman. Mr. Pettaway was either a running back or a linebacker.
Somewhere along the way, the two drifted — made their own friends, had their own lives, and became fathers.
Now the "very close friends" both could face the death penalty if they are found guilty of two brutal deaths.
To detectives who have spent the past year investigating the slaying of Johnny Clarke and Lisa Straub, a young Springfield Township couple found on Jan. 31, 2011, bound with duct tape and with plastic bags over their heads, Mr. Williams and Mr. Pettaway are culpable in the murders.
Lucas County Sheriff's Detective Jeff Kozak declined to comment on the arrests. He did say that there could be additional arrests in the case.
"I'm going to continue until I have everyone who was involved," he said. "I'm going to go after everybody."
Mr. Williams, of 1626 Kelsey Ave., has pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated murder, one count of kidnapping, and one count of aggravated burglary. His trial is scheduled for June 4 in Lucas County Common Pleas Court. He is in the county jail on a $4.3 million bond.
Mr. Pettaway, of 133 Essex Drive, has pleaded not guilty in Lucas County Common Pleas Court to two counts of aggravated murder, one count of aggravated burglary, and two counts of kidnapping. His trial date has also been set for June 4. In the fall, Judge James Bates issued a gag order in the case preventing attorneys from talking to the media.
Both men face the death penalty if convicted.
Felisha Popovich, 22, said she met the guys when they were all students at East Toledo Junior High.
"Sam wasn't always like that," Ms. Popovich said. "Cameo is the shocker."
To the people close to the accused, they are innocent.
Both Mr. Williams and Mr. Pettaway declined to be interviewed for this story, as did numerous friends and relatives.
Mr. Williams, who was a first-year social work student at Owens Community College, was the first of the two to be arrested. After questioning, detectives made the arrest downtown on Sept. 22. The next day, Zach Hainer, a childhood friend, described the accused killer as a "gentle giant."
Mr. Williams was 13 when he first got into trouble, according to his juvenile records. He was found to be delinquent of assault, sexual imposition, safe school ordinances, violating probation, petty theft, drug paraphernalia, possession of criminal tools, and receiving stolen property all before he could legally have a driver's license.
In December, 2005, Mr. Williams and his now ex-wife, Victoria Metcalfe, both 18, filed for a marriage license. Less than a month later, Ms. Metcalfe gave birth to a baby boy.
After nearly one year of marriage — then Mrs. Williams — filed a report with Toledo police stating that her husband visited her at work and "is mad because he thinks I'm going to take our child away from him. I am very scared that he will try to kill me."
Although the report, which was filed in December, 2006, referred to Mr. Williams as a "soon-to-be-ex," the two did not divorce until October, 2010.
In 2008, Mr. Williams was arrested and charged with felonious assault for punching a man and knocking out two of his upper front teeth. In October of that year, Mr. Williams entered a plea of no contest to assault and was found guilty by a Lucas County Common Pleas Court judge. His 45-day sentence at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio was suspended.
In 2009, Mr. Williams' older sister, Nora Aliemenious, told Toledo police that she was having "ongoing problems" with Mr. Williams and that he said he would come in and "blow her head off and her [17]-year-old son's head off," according to the report.
In 2010, nine months before their divorce was finalized, Mr. Williams' wife told police that he pushed her to the ground.
After Mr. Williams was arrested, Kenyatta Baker, Mr. Pettaway's mother, asked her son if he knew anything about the homicides. She asked her son if he was involved.
He answered ‘no' to each question.
Mr. Pettaway — the middle of three children — was arrested on Oct. 10 for the murders.
Mrs. Baker said her son is a "nail biter" and would have been a nervous wreck if he was involved.
When Mr. Pettaway was just 7 years old, he found himself in trouble for the first time. His eight-page list of juvenile charges shows he was found delinquent of a number of charges, including being unruly, petty theft, breaking and entering, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, receiving stolen property, criminal damaging, drug paraphernalia, and domestic violence.
But that's not all there is to Mr. Pettaway, said his stepfather, Jermaine Baker, who helped raise the boy for 13 years.
Mr. Pettaway, who left Waite High School sometime around his freshman year, played football — a runningback and linebacker — during elementary years and while he was in high school. He was quiet, disciplined — Mr. and Mrs. Baker could usually find him riding his bike around the neighborhood or fixing flat tires on his bike.
A woman who asked to not be identified, said when she met Mr. Pettaway he was charming.
The two, in 2004, had a baby girl.
"He was excited and happy about having her," she said. Mr. Pettaway, only 15, was in the hospital room, when their daughter was born.
Not long after the birth, Mr. Pettaway started to change, the woman said. The boy she loved — who had never laid a hand on her — became violent. He would allegedly slap her, choke her, pull her hair. Bite, push.
"He would always say he still loves me, and I'm not allowed to be with anybody else because I'm his property and the mother of his child and I'm not allowed to be with anybody."
The woman said contact with Mr. Pettaway has been sparse for years and she does not allow her daughter — who has no idea what her father is accused of — to be alone with Mr. Pettaway.
In 2010, the woman filed a police report alleging that Mr. Pettaway intentionally rear-ended her vehicle and threatened her.
The woman said she once, years ago, had a protection order against Mr. Pettaway, but feared for her life until mid-2009 when he stopped coming around.
The woman, who was also friends with Mr. Williams, said "When Sam got into trouble, Cameo was there when they were younger. When they were adults ... they got into their own type of trouble, not doing good things, but I didn't think that Cameo would actually harm somebody else. If he did I thought it would be myself or another mother of his children."
But kill someone? That, she said, doesn't sound like Mr. Pettaway.
"All of this surprises me," she said. "This whole thing. Like, I don't see, I honestly don't see Cameo doing this."
Thomas Scott, of Toledo, Mr. Pettaway's cousin, said the man he knows is a "very good father" and that he feels "sick to my stomach" about the arrest.
He said after Mr. Williams arrest, Mr. Pettaway didn't want to talk about it and only said he "didn't believe it."
His cousin's worst attribute is "the people he hangs around with," Mr. Scott said.
"The people he hangs out with are unbelievable," he said. "Everybody in this family is standing behind him. Everybody believes him and everybody cares about him."
A review of Toledo police reports show that Mr. Pettaway was accused of trafficking in marijuana, petty theft, and burglary.
Reports also show that Mr. Pettaway has been accused of assaulting at least five people — four of them women. Most of the charges were dismissed in Toledo Municipal Court when the women — three are mothers of his children — failed to show up.
Two of the women declined comment and told The Blade to not contact them again.
A woman who lives at the same address as one of the mothers — who in August told police that Mr. Pettaway bit her — said she had no comment to make "about that sweet, sweet boy."
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