COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court has declined to accept jurisdiction for two men convicted in Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas. Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy announced the decision on Monday.

The appeal of Alan M. Francis was denied. He is serving a 40-years-to-life sentence at Lake Erie Correctional Institution for the 2016 murder of 76-year-old John P. Crocker, who was killed during a robbery at his Weathersfield home. Francis initially accepted a plea deal, pleading no contest to charges including aggravated murder, robbery and burglary.

In October 2023, he sought to vacate his plea and sentence, arguing that he was not properly informed about the consequences of a no contest plea.

The motion was denied by Judge Ronald Rice, and Francis’s subsequent appeal also was rejected by the Ohio 11th District Court of Appeals. Francis will remain incarcerated and is next eligible for parole in November 2045.

Felix Brown also had his case rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court. Brown, who is serving an 18-years-to-life sentence at Grafton Correctional Institution, was convicted of the February 1995 murder of his girlfriend, Monica Brandon, in his Niles apartment.

At the time of the crime, Brown was on his fourth parole and had been released from prison just 22 days earlier. Brown initially claimed that Brandon was shot by an unknown intruder but later changed his story to suggest that the shooting was accidental during an argument.

Brown’s motion, filed in December 2022, argued that new evidence — including claims about errors in the trial transcript and affidavits from two jurors — warranted a new trial. The 11th District Court of Appeals denied the request for a new trial. He is scheduled for a parole board hearing in February 2025.