County seeks death warrant for Sean Carter

Man convicted of raping and killing grandmother in 1997

WARREN -- The Trumbull County Prosecutor's office has petitioned the Ohio Supreme Court to sign a death warrant for convicted killer Sean Carter.

In a motion filed late Monday, Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and Assistant Prosecutor Ashleigh Musick asked the high court to consider setting a date of execution for Carter, who originally was sentenced to death after he was convicted of raping and murdering his adoptive grandmother, Veader Prince, on Sept. 13, 1997, in her Southington home.

In a trial during March 1998, a Trumbull County jury had convicted Carter of aggravated murder and two of the capital specifications -- aggravated robbery and rape. The jury also found Carter guilty of aggravated robbery, rape and the lesser included offense of aggravated burglary.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Trumbull County ruled in August 2018 to uphold the murder conviction of Carter, who had attempted to avoid execution by claiming that he was incompetent at the time of his original trial. On Oct. 11, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his case.

"It is clear that appellant has exhausted his state and federal court reviews of his conviction and sentence," Watkins and Musick wrote. "Moreover, (Carter) has been imprisoned for over 22 years since his death sentence was imposed. Justice delayed has been justice denied to the survivors of Veader Prince. Accordingly, the state of Ohio respectively moves this court for an order setting an execution date."

Carter, 42, is housed at the Warren Correctional Institution in Lebanon, Ohio. Attempts to contact his lawyers, Ohio public defenders Randall Porter and Rachel Troutman, were unsuccessful.

The last inmate to be executed by the state was Robert Van Hooke, 58, who died of lethal injection July 18, 2018. The next scheduled execution, according to the Ohio Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation website, is Cleveland R. Jackson of Allen County. He is scheduled to die Jan. 13, 2021.