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WARREN -- For the third time, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the aggravated murder conviction and death sentence for Donna Roberts of Howland.
The high court made its decision in a 31-page decision released Tuesday. The decision came after the court heard oral arguments Feb. 6 in Columbus.
Roberts, who is accused of plotting the slaying of her husband Robert Fingerhut in their Howland home in December 2001, is the only female facing execution in Ohio. She appealed her case to the high court after a second Trumbull County judge gave her a death sentence in 2014.
The justices, including Justice William O'Neill who partially dissented, did not buy the argument from Roberts' lawyers that the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits a judge who sentences someone to death to be different from the judge who presided over the case at trial.
In October 2013, the Ohio Supreme Court sent the case of Roberts back to Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for re-sentencing. It was the second time the high court had vacated Roberts' death sentence.
In the spring of 2014, Trumbull Common Pleas Judge Ronald J. Rice, who was appointed to the case after the retirement and subsequent death of Judge John Stuard in 2013, resentenced Roberts to death.
"The substitution of Judge Rice did not deny Roberts the ability to present mitigating evidence or to have it considered by the sentencer," the court wrote.
The court also refused to consider a Sixth Amendment argument for Roberts because the decision states a written brief was not prepared for it.
"When an appellant's initial brief fails to mention an argument as a basis for reversing the judgment under review, we need not address that argument in deciding the appeal," the decision states.
In an independent analysis of the mitigation phase, the court ruled the aggravating circumstances of the murder outweigh the mitigating factors beyond a reasonable doubt.
Among the mitigating factors brought up by Roberts' defense was that she was brought up in an abusive home, was involved in three serious auto accidents in which Roberts was injured and a series of good deeds done by the defendant.
Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor LuWayne Annos, who argued the case in Columbus for the state, was not available Tuesday for comment. Defense attorney David Doughten did not return a call Tuesday.
The case arose from the murder of Fingerhut, who operated Greyhound bus terminals in the Mahoning Valley. Roberts lived with her former husband in an Avalon Drive home in Howland. At some point, Roberts had an affair with Nathaniel Jackson, who was sent to prison in 2001. During incarceration, Jackson and Roberts exchanged letters and phone calls. Prison authorities monitored this communication that revealed a murder plot, which served as key evidence during the trials.
Jackson was released in December 2001, with Roberts picking him up at prison. Two days after Jackson's release, Fingerhut, 57, was shot to death at the home.
Jackson was convicted of murder and also sentenced to death.
gvogrin@tribtoday.com