CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jurors suited up in rubber gloves, medical masks and paper booties this morning for their guided tour of Anthony Sowell’s Imperial Avenue duplex, where prosecutors say 11 women met violent ends and where their bodies were discovered in the fall of 2009.
Twelve jurors and four alternates toured the house in groups of four, entering through a back door and working their way methodically through the home’s basement and three floors.
CLEVELAND -- Prosecutors presented their opening arguments in the serial killing trial of Anthony Sowell, telling jurors it is a "case they will never forget," one that "will be burned into their memories forever."
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Rick Bombik continued his presentation by saying jurors would be taken on a "disturbing journey," where the unspeakable will have to be spoken of.
Bombik began his outline of the prosecution's case at about 2 p.m., around 3 hours after the jury returned to the courtroom after getting a tour of Sowell's house on Imperial Avenue.
He listed all the victims Sowell is charged with killing, along with the three women who escaped and lived to testify against him. As Bombik talked of the victims, he used a video monitor to show members of the jury photos of the victims.
this is a pretty good resource from the plain dealer (CLE's big newspaper):
I almost thought the day wouldn't come when this piece of shit would have to stand trial after it had been delayed multiple times...
I know it made national news back in October '09 right when the bodies were discovered but I don't know exactly how much coverage it's gotten.
It'd be refreshing to hear what non-ohioans have to say about the case, I doubt location will have any impact on your thoughts but here, in cleveland especially, we've been hearing about it for quite some time..
it's been National news since the outset.
i think it doesn't receive the attention and outrage that some other cases do because like many other serial killers, his targets were druggies and prostitutes. only 4 were ever even reported missing.
thanks LC, I wasn't sure how much attention it'd gotten nationwide. and right, because these women had drug/alcohol problems people seem to be less concerned than they ought to be. I think the fact that 7 of 11 were never even reported missing by family or friends is sad. I understand that they may not have had the best track record and very possibly could disappear for long stretches of time, the fact is still a somber one.
Also, my mom is a recently retired lieutenant for the CPD, I remember her being baffled that neighbors complained multiple times about the horrible odor, but it took so long for the bodies to be discovered. In her words the smell of a dead & decomposing body is unforgettable, unmistakable.
The sausage shop was blamed, as were the sewers in the neighborhood (if i remember correctly), what's your take on this? Should LE have recognized that this was not a smell caused by sausage or sewage?
"People used to think it was the sausage shop," said the owner of a pizza shop across the street. "We now realize what it was."
The owner of Ray’s Sausage always scoffed at the idea that her business stunk.
Renee Cash said the smell baffled her and other employees and that they always took extra steps to clean equipment because nobody knew the cause of the odor. State inspectors regularly visit the business and find no violations, she added.
"If we had any smells like that, we wouldn’t be in business for 57 years," Cash said. "That is wrong. This smell from here makes you want to eat."
Drains lines on the street have been cleaned and flushed in the last few years, but the odor still overpowered people in the second-floor offices of the sausage shop. Employees smelled the odor as soon as they walked up the steps, Cash said, and they kept the windows closed.
The windows sit six feet from Sowell’s house, and police removed a body from a shallow grave just below the windows. Cash never figured the smell to be rotting bodies. She believes the smell has lingered since at least 2006.
"We always thought it was the sewers," Cash said. "We’ve been smelling something for a long time."
Eli Tayeh manages a convenience store at the intersection and said Sowell frequented the business twice a day to buy King Cobra beer. He called Sowell a nice man but said he cringed when Sowell walked through the door.
"He smelled bad," Tayeh said. "I was always too embarrassed to ask him about it."
July 5, 2011
CLEVELAND—
The murder trial of accused serial killer Anthony Sowell resumed Tuesday after a long holiday weekend break, Fox 8's Kevin Freeman reports.
Testimony was put on hold Thursday for a Fourth of July recess. Proceedings resumed on Tuesday at 8 a.m.
Sowell, 51, is charged with killing 11 women and dumping their remains around his Imperial Avenue home.
Donald Smith was the first witness to take the stand. He is the father of victim Kim Smith.
Donald said his daughter, nicknamed "Candy," had no children. She was a talented singer who was in the church choir and had once provided backup vocals for Gerald and Sean Levert.
He said she became addicted to drugs her senior year of high school, leading to a slippery slope of drug and alcohol abuse.
"The older gentlemen were attracted to her," Donald said. "They got her addicted to drugs -- first marijuana, then it was cocaine, then it was crack."
He said that he last saw his daughter on Jan. 17, 2009.
"I knew something was wrong, so I immediately sent fliers to friends and I put up a $500 reward for information about her whereabouts," Donald said.
He ultimately contacted the coroner's office after hearing of bodies found on Imperial in Oct. 2009.
"(It was) father's intuition," he said. "I knew there was something wrong with my daughter."
Authorities told him that his daughter was indeed found inside the house.
In a rare lighthearted moment, when Donald was leaving the stand, he asked Judge Dick Ambrose, "Do you mind if I call you Bam Bam?" -- a reference to his nickname during his days playing with the Cleveland Browns.
Next up to testify was Lamaar Webb, 29, the son of victim Janice Webb. Lamaar said he would speak to his mother, a crack addict, every day. After not seeing her for a while, he and other family members started passing out missing persons pictures.
"She had never been gone this long," he said. "After I seen (the news about the bodies found on Imperial), I figured she was there."
He contacted the coroner's office, at which point it was confirmed to him that his mother was a victim.
Defense attorney John Parker tried to discredit Lamaar's testimony during cross-examination by bringing up his felony convictions on domestic violence, burglary and drug trafficking charges.
Janice Webb's sister Joanne Moore followed her nephew to the stand. She testified about the troubles her family had filing a missing persons report, and provided more details regarding her sister's struggles with drugs.
Audrey Webb, another sister of Janice Webb, and Christine Sobey, Kim Smith's aunt, also took the stand Tuesday morning.
Last week was the first week of testimony, highlighted by three women who said Sowell choked and tried to kill them. Prosecutors say the women had been lured to the house with drugs.
Sowell has pleaded not guilty. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
thanks for keeping this thread alive LC, I've been pretty busy.
Unidentified victim tells court in Cleveland that Anthony Sowell brutally raped her in 2007
By: Michael Scott, The Plain Dealer
Cleveland, Ohio -- Another witness who claims to be a rape survivor of accused serial killer Anthony Sowell told a judge and jury this afternoon that she was attacked in Sowell’s Imperial Avenue home in 2007.
The woman, whose identity was kept secret (her image was not shown on closed-circuit television being viewed by reporters), said she knew 8 of the 11 women whose remains were found in and around Sowell’s home in 2009.
She began testifying around 2 p.m., according to a moment-by-moment Twitter update by Stan Donaldson, one of two reporters from The Plain Dealer covering the trial.
The woman said she met Sowell in 2007 and drank alcohol and smoked crack with him at his Imperial Avenue home. Under cross-examination around 2:45, she admitted that she was once a prostitute.
The woman said, however, that she and Sowell did not have a sexual relationship. She said Sowell raped her in an upstairs room of his house, where she said the only items were a blanket and an extension cord.
She said she blacked out for several hours after Sowell raped her and told her “You’re not going anywhere,” when she was looking around for her clothing.
But then he let her borrow a shirt, apologized and allowed her to leave. The woman testified that she went to University Hospital, where she told a nurse that Sowell raped her, choking her with the extension cord.
"Why would you do this, I thought we were friends?" the woman said she told Sowell at the time.
The woman had remained composed throughout her testimony until shown pictures taken of the marks on her neck after the incident.
Other witnesses who appeared today included:
Bobby Dancy Sr., the father of victim Amelda Hunter's two sons. Dancy Sr., who was wearing a "Drug Free" T-shirt, said he raised his two sons. He said Hunter would go away for five days at a time. The last time he saw her was in April of 2009.
James Martin, the father of victim Diane Turner's daughter, who said he knew nine of the 11 victims found inside of the home on Imperial Avenue. "It was terrible," Martin said of odor that was around East 123rd and Imperial. "Everyone said it was the sewer system.
Denise Hunter, the sister of Amelda Hunter. She said the last time she saw her sister was in April of 2009. She said she visited Sowell's home in 2007. She said from what she saw there was a lot trash and debris inside of home "When I saw the house, I knew she was there," Hunter said of when she saw Sowell's home on television.
Sowell, 51, is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and a host of other offenses in the deaths of 11 women whose bodies were found in and around his home in Cleveland’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood in the fall of 2009. He also is accused of attacking several other women who survived. His trial began June 6, and he faces the death penalty if convicted.
the twitter feed from inside the courtroom (by Plain Dealer reporter Stan Donaldson) is pretty informational. Easy to catch up with during the day too. Here's the link
Dr. Krista Pekarski, of the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiners Office, testifies about the autopsies she performed on the first two bodies found in the third floor bedroom of accused serial-killing suspect Anthony Sowell's Imperial Avenue home in Cleveland on October, 29, 2009.
That video only shows Dr. Pekarski talking about the first 2 victims found in the house. She performed autopsies on 6 of the 11 victims. The twitter feed provided more detail on her testimony, I figured I'd copy/paste them here so that nobody has to search through all the pages on that twitter profile if they want to read them later on. anything in bold was added by me. Also, when each victim is first identified by name I will add a number indicating the chronological order of when they went missing...not trying to be insensitive or anything but when there are 11 victims it can be a little more challenging to remember the dates of when they went missing.
tweets from during Dr. Pekarski's testimony by Stan Donaldson, The Plain Dealer
Dr. Krista Pekarski, Pathologist with Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office. She is explaining autopsy process to Bombik. (prosecution)
Pekarski performed autopsies on six of the victims. She is talking about the autopsy report of Telacia Fortson.(10) #anthonysowell
Pekarski said Fortson's body was 66 inches and four to six pounds. #anthonysowell
Jurors looking at medical examiner photos of Telacia Fortson. Pekarski said victim had on a clover shaped medallion. #anthonysowell
"The organs are no longer identifiable as a heart or lungs," Pekarski said. She said Fortson died from asphyxia. #anthonysowell
Pekarski talking about her autopsy of victim Diane Turner. (11) #anthonysowell
Pekarski said Turner was 62 inches and 72 pounds when her body was found in Sowell's home..
#anthonysowell looking at pics of decomposed body. Bombik read Pekarski's autopsy report and said there were bugs (maggots) on her.
Pekarski said Telacia Fortson was dead for longer than Diane Turner. The victims were the first two bodies discovered on Imperial Avenue.
Pekarski said Turner died from homicidal violence, type undetermined. #anthonysowell
Pekarski talking about body found inside of bag. Victim was Nancy Cobbs (7). She weighed 46 pounds, Pekarski said of report. #anthonysowell
Pekarski said Cobbs was strangled. #anthonysowell
Pekarski also performed autopsy of victim Tishana Culver (2). #anthonysowell
Pekarski said Culver was 56 inches long and weighed 4 to 6 pounds. #anthonysowell
Pekarski said Culver's collarbone was broken and her hands were bound. #anthonysowell
Pekarski said Culver died of strangulation.
Pekarski talking about her autopsy report of Kim Smith (6). She said Smith was 66 inches and her remains weighed 105 pounds. #anthonysowell
Pekarski said Smith was in the ground for at least three months. #anthonysowell
Jury released for lunch break. They plan to get started by 1:30 p.m. #anthonysowell
Ambrose (judge) asked prosecution to not display pictures on monitor for long period of time. #anthonysowell
Pekarski back on stand in #anthonysowell trial.
Parker (defense) is cross-examining Dr. Pekarski.
Parker is still questioning Pekarski about autopsies she conducted. #anthonysowell (time stamp on this one indicates it was at least 1 hour since beginning cross examination)
Jurors released for afternoon break. #anthonysowell
Parker completed cross-examination of Pekarski. Bombik asking redirect questions. #anthonysowell
i meant to do this in the previous post but i wasn't able to attach all the individual pics, so i made a single jpeg with all 11 of the victims' photos, for reference
Cleveland, Ohio -- More disturbing details emerged this morning as the coroner who conducted five of the 11 autopsies on murder victims on the Imperial Avenue killings took the stand in the capital murder trial of Anthony Sowell.
Former Cuyahoga County Coroner Dr. Elizabeth Balraj testified about the autopsies of Tonia Carmichael, Amelda Hunter, Crystal Dozier, Janice Webb and Leshanda Long. Balraj had retired as county coroner, but stayed on to continue working at the new Medical Examiner's office under a new county government.
Balraj said Dozier, Carmichael and Hunter died from strangulation. Jurors were shown photographs of Dozier, but the images were not shown to media watching a live video feed in a room behind the courtroom.
Balraj went over details in her autopsy of Long, although police had only recovered her skull from Sowell's home.
Defense attorneys began quizzing Balraj just before the noon hour about whether there was any traces of drugs in any of the bodies she autopsied.
Last week, former Coroner Dr. Frank Miller had also testified about how medical experts used DNA to identify victims. Dr. Krista Pekarski of the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's office had also been on the stand, talking about the six autopsies she had performed.
Also taking the stand this morning was Christopher Kern, a former forensic scientist with Cuyahoga's coroner's ofice who now works in Washington D.C.
Sowell, 51, was in court today wearing a short sleeve yellow shirt.
He is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and a host of other offenses in the deaths of 11 women whose bodies were found in and around his home in Cleveland’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood in the fall of 2009.
He also is accused of attacking several other women who survived -- and who took the stand in the second week of the trial.
The trial on the 18th floor of the Cuyahoga County Justice Center began June 6. Sowell faces the death penalty if convicted.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Images of the remains of 11 women, many rendered unrecognizable as humans by months or years of decay, passed before jurors on a 27-inch monitor Friday -- and Anthony Sowell seemed transfixed by the glowing screen.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose, calling the photos "grotesque," asked the attorneys during a break in Sowell's trial to spare the jury the nightmarish scenes by displaying them only as long as necessary.
But Sowell's gaze was riveted to the monitor several feet away, as he leaned forward slightly in his seat, propped his chin in his hand and listened to investigators explain what they found in and around the suspected serial killer's Imperial Avenue home.
Sowell, 51, is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and a litany of other offenses for the deaths of the 11 women. He also is accused of attacking several others who survived. His trial began June 6, and he faces the death penalty if convicted.
Friday morning for jurors kicked off with a silent slide show featuring hundreds of photos taken during the excavation by police of Sowell's house and yard in late October and early November 2009.
The images became progressively more grisly with the testimony of Deputy Medical Examiner Krista Pekarski, who performed six of the autopsies in the case.
Assistant County Prosecutor Rick Bombik asked questions to pinpoint how long each of the women had been dead by the time they were found and their order of death in relation to one another.
Pekarski drew upon the degree of decomposition, the presence of insects or larvae and the dates the women were last seen alive to arrive at her conclusions, she said.
But each set of remains had decomposed under different conditions, temperatures and environments, making it difficult to know exactly when the women had died, she told jurors.
Two of the bodies she examined had been left out in the open air in an attic apartment, while another on that floor had been wrapped in a garbage bag. A fourth was found swaddled in a comforter, a carpet padding and plastic and buried beneath a mound of dirt.
Two more women on whom Pekarski had performed autopsies were buried in the yard, exposed to the elements for unknown periods of time.
my quick recap of the week, so far, followed by articles/links...including links to videos & a PDF transcript of Sowell's interrogation after first being arrested (Oct. 31, 2009) i tried to include the PDF as an attachment but was unable to
Earlier this week (Mon. 7/18) Judge Ambrose acquitted Anthony Sowell of 2 of the counts against him. (1 kidnapping and 1 felony murder charge in the case of Leshanda Long, he still faces an aggravated murder charge for her death)
The prosecution rested their case the same day, after presenting over 400 pieces of evidence and testimony from 62 witnesses.
(Tues. 7/19) The defense took less than a day to present their case. They called no witnesses.
(Wed. 7/20) Closing arguments took place this morning, and jurors were sent to deliberate around 4:00 pm
Serial-killings defendant Anthony Sowell and his defense team enjoyed a minor victory Monday, when a judge acquitted him of two of the 85 counts against him for the deaths of 11 women and attacks on several others who survived.
Sowell will not face charges of kidnapping and felony murder in the case of Leshanda Long, whose head was found in a bucket in the basement of Sowell’s Imperial Avenue home in 2009.
The felony murder charge was predicated on the assumption that Long was slain during a kidnapping.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose ruled that, without Long’s body, prosecutors do not have enough evidence to prove Sowell held Long against her will -- unlike many of the other victims, whose bodies were found bound at the wrists and with ligatures still wrapped around their necks.
Another count of aggravated murder for Long’s death still stands, however, and Ambrose rejected the defense attorneys’ remaining arguments that Sowell should be acquitted on all counts because the state had not met its burden of proof.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Attorneys for serial-killings defendant Anthony Sowell rested their case Tuesday without calling a single witness to testify in their client’s defense.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose reminded jurors earlier in the week that Sowell’s choice not to present a case cannot be held against him.
But the decision came as a surprise to court-watchers aware of the nearly $600,000 cost to taxpayers for Sowell’s legal team -- the most expensive publicly-funded criminal defense in the county’s history.
Sowell, 51, is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and a slate of other offenses in the deaths of 11 women whose remains were found in and around his Imperial Avenue home in 2009. He also is accused of attacking several others who survived. His trial began June 6, and he faces the death penalty if convicted.
Attorneys are expected to deliver their closing arguments this morning before turning the case over to jurors for deliberation.
Sowell’s record-breaking defense budget included thousands of dollars spent on a forensic pathologist and a crime scene expert to analyze the work of Cleveland police and officials from the County Medical Examiners Office.
Neither expert testified, though defense attorneys John Parker and Rufus Sims cross-examined investigators about security of the crime scene and decisions on which items to collect from the house and test for DNA.
verdict will be in at 2:15.
i doubt we'll see any surprises.
the jury isn't the pinellas pinheads.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After 15 hours of deliberation, a Cuyahoga County jury has reached a verdict in the capital murder trial of serial-killings defendant Anthony Sowell.
The verdict is expected to be announced at 2:15 p.m. before Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose.
Court officials are assembling family members of the 11 women who were found dead in and around Sowell’s Imperial Avenue home in 2009.
If Sowell is convicted, jurors will then embark upon the next phase of the trial, during which they determine whether he deserves the death penalty.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Anthony Sowell will face the death penalty in the slayings of 11 women whose bodies were found dead in his Imperial Avenue home.
A Cuyahoga County jury convicted the 51-year-old Cleveland man of multiple counts of aggravated murder and related offenses today in Common Pleas Court. Jurors deliberated for about 15 hours over three days before returning their decision.
The trial will now move into the mitigation phase, during which Sowell's lawyers will try to convince jurors that his life is worth sparing. The same jury will reconvene to hear evidence in that phase. They can recommend a death sentence or life in prison with or without the chance for parole.
Judge Dick Ambrose will make the final decision on Sowell's punishment. He is not bound to the jury's recommendation but cannot impose a death sentence unless the jury recommends one.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Anthony Sowell will face the death penalty in the slayings of 11 women whose bodies were found dead in his Imperial Avenue home.
A Cuyahoga County jury convicted the 51-year-old Cleveland man of multiple counts of aggravated murder and related offenses today in Common Pleas Court. Jurors deliberated for about 15 hours over three days before returning their decision.
The trial will now move into the mitigation phase, during which Sowell's lawyers will try to convince jurors that his life is worth sparing. The same jury will reconvene to hear evidence in that phase. They can recommend a death sentence or life in prison with or without the chance for parole.
Judge Dick Ambrose will make the final decision on Sowell's punishment. He is not bound to the jury's recommendation but cannot impose a death sentence unless the jury recommends one.
Testimony in the trial - held in Judge Dick Ambrose's courtroom - lasted for three weeks. Prosecutors called 62 witnesses. The defense called none.
The jury of seven women and five men viewed hundreds of pieces of evidence.
While they chose not to call Sowell as a witness or present evidence, the defense tried to paint the suspected serial killer as a sympathetic character and inspire reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors.
Sowell's lawyers said prosecutors presented no direct evidence -- no eyewitnesses to the killings, no fingerprints and no DNA -- linking Sowell to any of the victims.
Jurors rejected that argument and convicted Sowell.
Ambrose began reading the verdicts about 3 p.m. Sowell remained stoic as the judge began reading the forms. A deputy handcuffed him immediately after the first verdict came in.
Several relatives present in court cried as the verdicts were read. Donnita Carmichael hugged her grandmother, Barbara Carmichael. Tonia Carmichael was one of Sowell's victims.
"I'm glad justice has been done," said Audrey Webb, sister of victim Janice Webb. "I'm glad it's over and he is getting what he deserves."
CLEVELAND — The life of a Cleveland serial killer is now in the hands of a jury.
The same jurors last month convicted 51-year-old Anthony Sowell in the deaths of 11 women whose remains were found around his property.
The panel began deliberating this afternoon on whether to recommend the death sentence or a life sentence without parole.
In closing statements, defense attorney John Parker appealed to the jury to spare Sowell’s life based on his troubled childhood, his Marine Corps service, his job history and his good behavior while he was in prison for attempted rape.
Assistant county prosecutor Pinkey Carr argued those factors do not outweigh his crimes because, she says, "he’s evil."
Police say Sowell lured women to his home with the promise of alcohol or drugs.
I have no problem with this guy getting the needle. However, I'd actually like to see the different variations of execution brought back. Electric Chair, Hanging, Firing Squad, etc.
I don't give a rats ass about cruel and unusual punishment for a convicted murderer. I like the idea of them being scared shitless on their way to the death chamber.
And, for those who've decided to kill a child, we'll think up some real special death scenarios.
(08-09-2011, 04:49 PM)Midwest Spy Wrote: I have no problem with this guy getting the needle. However, I'd actually like to see the different variations of execution brought back. Electric Chair, Hanging, Firing Squad, etc.
![[Image: 9767285-large.jpg]](http://media.cleveland.com/anthony-sowell/photo/9767285-large.jpg)
![[Image: 9789802-large.jpg]](http://media.cleveland.com/plain-dealer/photo/9789802-large.jpg)
![[Image: 7b1b06_Sowell2_08032011.jpg]](http://multimedia.heraldinteractive.com/images/20110803/7b1b06_Sowell2_08032011.jpg)
Stoning?