"Convicted triple murderer Kevin Keith's application for a new trial
was denied Friday by Crawford County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean E.
Leuthold.........Keith, of Crestline,
was convicted in the 1994 aggravated murder of three people and the
attempted murder of three more at Bucyrus Estates. He was sentenced to
death. But just two weeks before his scheduled execution, Keith received
a commutation (reduction) of his sentence by Gov. Ted Strickland in
2010. That commutation came in spite of a parole board's 8-0
recommendation to carry out the sentence. The 53-year-old Keith has consistently denied he was the shooter.........The
state said Keith opened fire on a group in retaliation for a drug
arrest he blamed on an informant related to the shooting victims. The
most recent request for a new trial surrounded the credibility of
Bureau of Criminal Identification Forensic Scientist Michele Yezzo.
Keith's attorneys sought a new trial stating Yezzo's testimony linked
Keith to the crime scene. Keith's
attorney's noted that in Yezzo's personnel file she was reprimanded in a
separate case because her "interpretational and observational errors"
were "failures that could lead to a substantial miscarriage of justice.".........This was the fifth time Keith requested a new trial and the fifth time the motion was either denied or withdrawn."
Is The Age of Progressive Prosecutors Over?
16 hours ago
