WARREN — Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins is a tenacious fighter.

His diligence and legal perseverance helped to bring Trumbull County murder suspect Claudia Hoerig from Brazil to justice last year, as she was convicted for the 2007 murder of her husband, war hero Karl Hoerig of Newton Falls.

Watkins said he made history in that case, and he looks for history to strike again on his side when it comes to justice for Raymond Fife and his family.

Watkins was first elected to office in the fall of 1984. At the end of the next summer, the 12-year-old Fife was tortured and murdered. The new prosecutor had made his first big case, seeing guilty verdicts for defendants Danny Lee Hill, then 18, and Timothy Combs, then 17. Now 35 years later, Watkins still seeks final justice in a case that has led a twisted path through legal maneuvers, appeals, resentencing edicts and innovation.

“Justice is a journey. It doesn’t end until it is done,” Watkins said.

Combs is now gone, a victim of a heart attack in prison in late 2018, but Hill still is fighting for his life.

His appeal of the death sentence has now taken him before the full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

Watkins said the long road of justice took a turn in 2002 when a Virginia case was decided by the Supreme Court: It ruled that mentally retarded individuals could not be put to death.

The level of Hill’s IQ now was thrust to the center of the legal maneuvers, Watkins said. The decision now showed that the IQ level of mental disability hovered around 70.

Although Watkins remains hopeful justice will be done, he knows this legal battle has reached extra innings.

“It’s not over. This journey for justice can take any length of time. But I feel the appeal line is either ending with this full 6th District or the U.S. Supreme Court,” he said.

NEXT EVENT

The next legal event in the case will be Dec. 2 when oral arguments will be presented before the full 6th U.S. Circuit in Cincinnati.

A lawyer in the Ohio Attorney General’s office said this event will be the “biggest show in town” as all the federal judges will assemble.

Arguing the case for the government will be state Solicitor General Ben Flowers, whom legal experts say has a brilliant young legal mind, and trained as a legal clerk for late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia.

Flowers knows the importance of arguing at this “enbanc” hearing, or before the full court. When he heard the decision, he personally phoned Miriam Fife to let her know.

“He’s such a nice guy,” Fife said. “I don’t know if I am going to go down to the hearing, but they haven’t determined whether or not it will be a teleconference because of COVID-19.”

Fife had gotten to know her way around courtrooms as she served as Watkins’ victim’s rights advocate for 25 years.

“She became a tour de force in the profession,” Watkins said of the grieving mother who turned into chief consoler of the grievers.

As for the Hill case, legal experts believe after the oral arguments the 6th Circuit will move “lightning quick” to get a decision, probably in April or May of 2021.

TWISTS AND TURNS

Retired Trumbull County assistant prosecutor Luwayne Annos, who was in the second chair beside Watkins for many of the state appeals in the Hill case, weighed in on the many legal twists and turns.

“This is a living example of the old adage that justice delayed is justice denied,” Annos said. “I worked in public service for 31 1/2 years, and this case outlasted me.”

Annos said the case moved along in appeals until the Atkins vs. Virginia decision came through in 2002, causing it to be bogged down on the federal level.

“The Ohio courts got this right,” Watkins said.

Annos said it is unfortunate that the Fife family and the entire community has had to wait so long for a final verdict.

“Miriam used to say that Raymond had become everyone’s chwld,” Annos said. “And here in 2020, that statement remains true.”

When talking about a final resolution Fife could only say: “The justice would have been for Hill and Combs not to be in the woods that day, but rather in the custody of the juvenile justice system. They had been involved in criminal activity for a long time.”