Supreme Court declines 5 county cases
WARREN — The Supreme Court of Ohio last week declined to accept jurisdiction of the appeals for five Trumbull County criminal cases, all of which had been rejected by the Ohio 11th District Court of Appeals.
Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy signed off on the memoranda declining jurisdiction for the following cases:
• Antuan M. Parker, who was found guilty by a Trumbull County jury on Jan. 13, 2023, of first-degree murder with a firearm specification, two counts of aggravated arson, gross abuse of a corpse, two counts of tampering with evidence and two counts of having weapons while under disability.
Parker was convicted of the September 2021 shooting death of a Warren woman as well as the intentional burning of a southside Warren residence. Judge Cynthia Westcott Rice sentenced Parker to consecutive prison terms totaling 42- to 47.5 -years to life.
• Shane Newton, who was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison by now retired Judge Andrew D. Logan after a jury found her guilty of two counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of rape in the 2022 sexual assault of a 9-year-old girl.
• Corey D. Hoffman, who was convicted of aggravated vehicular assault and failure to stop after an accident. Now retired Judge W. Wyatt McKay sentenced him to 4.5 years in prison. The case involved a September 2021 traffic crash that seriously injured Tammy Kingery, requiring her leg to be amputated.
• David Honzu, who was convicted in 2022 in two separate criminal cases and declared a sexually violent predator by the court. In the first one, Honzu was given a 17-year-to-life prison term, including a sexually violent predator specification, by a visiting judge after he was found guilty by a jury on three counts of kidnapping, aggravated robbery and tampering with evidence. The case involved a 2022 attempted kidnapping at a self-service car wash in Champion. The second case involved a conviction on three counts of kidnapping and two counts of rape related to the 2007 rape of a woman in Warren. After the jury found him guilty at that trial, Judge Ronald J. Rice also declared him a repeat violent offender, sentencing him to 60 years to life in prison to be served consecutively to the first life sentence.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins was very pleased with the decision by the Supreme Court, which confirmed the good work displayed by the appellate and trial courts, the defense attorney and prosecutors, as well as the police who investigated the cases.
“I am complimenting all the players in our justice system and complimenting the high court’s decisions, which reflect the good work of all those in ‘getting it right the first time’,” Watkins said, adding that his office is “not interested in convicting innocent people.”