Liberty man pleads not guilty in slaying
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WARREN -- The Liberty Township man accused of shooting his roommate to death Sunday night was arraigned Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on five felony charges, including aggravated murder.
Felix Olverson, 55, of 1474 Keefer Road, pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated murder with a firearm specification, receiving stolen property, being a felon in possession of a weapon, having a firearm without a serial number and tampering with evidence.
Judge Peter J. Kontos set bond at $1 million and appointed David Rouzzo as Olverson's defense counsel.
Olverson, who appeared in orange county jail coveralls, said nothing, standing by his attorney as Rouzzo addressed the court. The defendant has been in custody since his arrest early Monday.
Kontos set the next pre-trial hearing for the morning of Sept. 21, at which time Rouzzo should have all the evidence in the case against his client.
According to Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Becker, the case was presented directly to a grand jury. If convicted of all charges, Becker said the maximum penalty would be life in prison without the chance for parole. Olverson was convicted of a felony in the 1980s in Mahoning County, Becker said.
William B. Ross, 31, died after being shot in the chest on the front porch of the Keefer Road address shortly before 11 p.m. Olverson had walked away from the scene with his German shepherd, and after a search of the area was apprehended by authorities in the back yards of Keefer Road.
Becker said the firearm used in the crime was stolen.
Liberty police Chief Toby Meloro said the shooting may have resulted from a disagreement. The Trumbull County Coroner's office said a cause of death has not been determined. An autopsy on Ross was performed Monday.
Olverson's daughter, Lisa Sutherland, told the newspaper that her father and Ross had been fighting for a time. The disagreements intensified in the past month, after Ross had broken up with her father's former stepdaughter. They had all lived at the Keefer Road home for about two years. Sutherland said things came to a head after last Thursday, when she said her father "was beat up."