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Two murder cases involving pregnant victims are seeing activity in courtrooms at opposite ends of the Mahoning Valley.
A Sebring man last Thursday answered a murder charge in Mahoning County Court in Sebring in connection to a case that legal minds had not seen here.
The man is being charged with murder after a woman who was eight weeks pregnant at the time of a June 10 assault began experiencing complications from the incident. Four days afterward, it was determined that a fetal heartbeat no longer was present.
Jacob Fullerton, 21, was ordered held in Mahoning County jail pending the posting of a $50,000 bond on the murder charge. At the hearing before Judge Joseph L. Schiavoni, Fullerton claimed to be indigent and asked for a court-appointed attorney.
No plea was accepted, but the court docket states the defendant waived his right to a preliminary hearing in a timely fashion. An Aug. 18 hearing has been set in the Sebring court before Schiavoni.
Gary Van Brocklin, solicitor for the village of Sebring, said Ohio law is clear in this case.
"That when you do what our investigation shows he did, you are guilty of murder," Van Brocklin said. He said Fullerton repeatedly punched his girlfriend's stomach on June 10, knowing that she was pregnant.
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains said he doesn't know all the facts of the case -- but will deal with it if it comes his way if a grand jury indicts Fullerton.
STATE LAWS
An Ohio law went into effect in July 2019 that makes abortion illegal after the fetal heartbeat can be detected, which usually develops five or six weeks after conception. This is a "trigger" law that became effective upon last month's high court ruling abolishing the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
The Sebring case, however, does not involve an abortion but an assault on a pregnant woman.
Research into Ohio Revised Code 2903.01 which was updated in 2002, defines aggravated murder, murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide, aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated vehicular assault, felonious assault, aggravated assault, assault and negligent assault. The law applies to a person -- which includes an "unborn member of the species Homo sapiens, who is or was carried in the womb of another."
Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor Christopher Becker said in his 32 years of practicing law in courtrooms in Trumbull and Jefferson counties, he has never heard of a case similar to the one occurring in Sebring.
"I remember after first getting here in Trumbull County of prosecuting a mother charged with manslaughter, but they were newborns," Becker said in referring to the 2003 case against Gloria Greenfield. Greenfield plea bargained the first-degree murders involving the deaths of her 17-day-old son in February 1970 and the death of a 15-day-old daughter in March 1971.
TRUMBULL TRIAL
Becker on Tuesday will begin a trial of a Warren man in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court who is accused of killing a seven-months pregnant woman, 26, and her unborn baby. Jury selection in the case of Kemari James is expected to begin at the courthouse in downtown Warren. Visiting Judge Gary Yost of Ashtabula County was appointed by the Supreme Court to be the presiding judge.
James is facing two counts of purposeful murder, and single counts aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, having weapons under disability and escape. He is being accused in the April 26, 2020, shooting death of La'Nesha Workman, 26, who was found at a home in the 1600 block of Ogden Avenue with multiple bullet wounds that also killed her unborn baby.
James has been held in Trumbull County jail in lieu of $2 million bond since May 15, 2020, after he was arrested in Baltimore and waived extradition. Since that arrest, James has gone through a series of attorneys and at one point had wanted to represent himself. He is now being represented by attorney Walter Madison of Akron.
Becker said because the original trial judge, Peter J. Kontos, had been on leave, he didn't want the James trial to be delayed further and asked a visiting judge be seated.
"I didn't want the victims in the case to wait any longer," Becker said.
Testimony is expected to center around the events of the night Workman was shot.
During the testimony at a 2020 evidence suppression hearing, the father of Workman's child testified James had knocked at the back door while they were playing video games, having a "family night" with the children. Andre Haynes had said Workman was the mother of his son and the unborn child. Another of Workman's children also was present when James arrived.
James had asked for a ride to a Parkman Road NW address and as Haynes got up to leave, he saw a gun held to his face.
Haynes testified he learned through "the grapevine" that James thought he had stolen his television and microwave. James ordered both Haynes and Workman to their knees, and Haynes testified he then heard two shots.
The formal request for a visiting judge was made by the court's Administrative Judge Andrew D. Logan, and Yost was appointed to serve 90 days in Trumbull County. Since that time, Kontos has announced his retirement. Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to appoint an interim judge until the remainder of Kontos' term is filled by voters during November's election.