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WARREN -- Two inmates serving time in state prison were denied parole by the Ohio Parole Authority. Both men were convicted of crimes committed in Trumbull County.
Christopher Daniel, 54, of Lake Erie Correctional Institution, was sentenced to 37 years to life in March 1989 for aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, attempted murder and involuntary manslaughter for his role in a 1988 southeast Warren home invasion attack that killed George Melnick and severely injured his wife, Kathryn Melnick.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins had written the parole board a letter in May opposing Daniel's release as he has done prior to similar hearings in 2019, 2015, 2011, 2007 and 2003.
George Melnick was killed by Andre Williams, who was convicted and sentenced to death. Williams is still on death row. Watkins had written that Daniel was the accomplice in the heinous crime, attacking Kathryn Melnick with a piece of cinder block. She was hospitalized for six weeks and lived the rest of her life with permanent injury and blindness.
Daniel will remain incarcerated as he awaits his next parole hearing in March 2026.
The second inmate, Clyde Bush, 73, of Marion Correctional Institution, has served about 34 years of eight life sentences as a convicted sex offender. In 1989, Bush was convicted on attempted child rape and five counts of gross sexual imposition for molesting 10 children -- ages 2 to 6 -- during a two-year period at his wife's Howland day care center.
Former Howland Township detective, now Trumbull County Sheriff Paul Monroe, originally investigated the case and in 2019 he wrote a letter in opposition to his parole.
"These children were robbed of their innocence and subjected not only to physical trauma but also such mental anguish as we will never know," Monroe said.
In his recent letter opposing Bush's release, Watkins stated: "Some crimes live on in infamy and won't (or shouldn't) be forgotten," Watkins said.