07-18-2012, 11:40 AM
blade
Johnny Clarke and Lisa Straub were planning to have friends over to her parents’ Springfield Township home and try to buy illegal drugs the night they were brutally murdered, a prosecutor said Wednesday morning.
During opening statements in Lucas County Common Pleas Court in the trial of Cameo Pettaway, Tim Braun, an assistant Lucas County prosecutor, told jurors that both Clarke, 21, and Ms. Straub, 20, had gotten into the habit of abusing the prescription painkiller, Percocet.
Clarke had called friends looking for Percocet the night of Jan. 31, 2011, when his final phone call was interrupted when he “verbally confronted” someone inside the Straub home, Mr. Braun said. He promised to call his friend back but never did.
Hours later, Clarke’s father kicked in the front door of the Straubs’ home and found his son and Ms. Straub lying on the floor with plastic bags bound tightly around their necks with black duct tape, Mr. Braun said. Both were dead.
It was a Newport cigarette found near the door leading from the Straubs’ home to the garage that first connected Mr. Pettaway to the crime, Mr. Braun said. His DNA and that of co-defendant, Samuel Williams, was found on the cigarette butt, Mr. Braun said.
Other DNA was found in the house as well, including DNA on the duct tape that belongs to a woman who was never identified.
“A lot of this case is dependent on the circumstantial evidence because the circumstantial evidence demonstrates exactly what was done in that house to Lisa Straub and Johnny Clarke,” Mr. Braun said. “.. The other issue becomes who was involved, and that’s a little harder. And I can tell you right now it’s the belief of the state of Ohio there were other people [who] were involved – not just Cameo Pettaway, not just Samuel Williams.”
Indeed, defense attorney Mark Geudtner countered that the cigarette butt is the only evidence linking Mr. Pettaway, 23, of 133 Essex St., to the crime scene. Mr. Geudtner told the jury that Mr. Pettaway and Mr. Williams are friends who both smoke Newports. “The evidence will show that there are a number of other suspects other than Cameo Pettaway who had motives that are actually more likely than Cameo to have been involved in these homicides,” Mr. Geudtner said.
He suggested sheriff’s investigators failed to follow up leads on those suspects after Mr. Pettaway and Mr. Williams were arrested and that they “manipulated and corrupted” the crime scene in the first place.
“You may be disappointed to learn that at this point actually nobody knows for sure who killed Johnny and Lisa,” he told the jury.
Judge James Bates sent the jury home after opening statements and advised them to return to court at 9 a.m. Monday for the first witnesses. Those witnesses will be called to testify in both Mr. Pettaway’s trial and Mr. Williams’s trial, which will be happening simultaneously in the courtroom of Judge Dean Mandros.
![[Image: pettaway-court.jpg]](http://www.toledoblade.com/image/2012/07/18/800x_b1_cCM_z/pettaway-court.jpg)
Johnny Clarke and Lisa Straub were planning to have friends over to her parents’ Springfield Township home and try to buy illegal drugs the night they were brutally murdered, a prosecutor said Wednesday morning.
During opening statements in Lucas County Common Pleas Court in the trial of Cameo Pettaway, Tim Braun, an assistant Lucas County prosecutor, told jurors that both Clarke, 21, and Ms. Straub, 20, had gotten into the habit of abusing the prescription painkiller, Percocet.
Clarke had called friends looking for Percocet the night of Jan. 31, 2011, when his final phone call was interrupted when he “verbally confronted” someone inside the Straub home, Mr. Braun said. He promised to call his friend back but never did.
Hours later, Clarke’s father kicked in the front door of the Straubs’ home and found his son and Ms. Straub lying on the floor with plastic bags bound tightly around their necks with black duct tape, Mr. Braun said. Both were dead.
It was a Newport cigarette found near the door leading from the Straubs’ home to the garage that first connected Mr. Pettaway to the crime, Mr. Braun said. His DNA and that of co-defendant, Samuel Williams, was found on the cigarette butt, Mr. Braun said.
Other DNA was found in the house as well, including DNA on the duct tape that belongs to a woman who was never identified.
“A lot of this case is dependent on the circumstantial evidence because the circumstantial evidence demonstrates exactly what was done in that house to Lisa Straub and Johnny Clarke,” Mr. Braun said. “.. The other issue becomes who was involved, and that’s a little harder. And I can tell you right now it’s the belief of the state of Ohio there were other people [who] were involved – not just Cameo Pettaway, not just Samuel Williams.”
Indeed, defense attorney Mark Geudtner countered that the cigarette butt is the only evidence linking Mr. Pettaway, 23, of 133 Essex St., to the crime scene. Mr. Geudtner told the jury that Mr. Pettaway and Mr. Williams are friends who both smoke Newports. “The evidence will show that there are a number of other suspects other than Cameo Pettaway who had motives that are actually more likely than Cameo to have been involved in these homicides,” Mr. Geudtner said.
He suggested sheriff’s investigators failed to follow up leads on those suspects after Mr. Pettaway and Mr. Williams were arrested and that they “manipulated and corrupted” the crime scene in the first place.
“You may be disappointed to learn that at this point actually nobody knows for sure who killed Johnny and Lisa,” he told the jury.
Judge James Bates sent the jury home after opening statements and advised them to return to court at 9 a.m. Monday for the first witnesses. Those witnesses will be called to testify in both Mr. Pettaway’s trial and Mr. Williams’s trial, which will be happening simultaneously in the courtroom of Judge Dean Mandros.