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Supreme Court of Ohio: Death penalty upheld for man who killed, burned four women
JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Special to the Legal News
Published: June 3, 2014
In a 4-3 opinion released early last week, the Supreme Court of Ohio affirmed a death sentence for a man found guilty of killing and burning four Hamilton County women between 2006 and 2009.
The defendant, Anthony Kirkland, was arrested in March 2009 in connection with a missing 13-year-old girl.
Kirkland initially denied any involvement in the girl’s disappearance, but later admitted to killing her and three other women.
His first victim, 14-year-old Casonya, was walking to her grandmother’s house after midnight in May 2006.
She was on her cell phone with her boyfriend and the two were having an argument when the phone suddenly cut off.
Casonya’s boyfriend told police he tried to call her back numerous times, but was unable to reach her.
When Casonya did not arrive at her grandmother’s or at school the next day, her grandmother reported her missing.
Three days later, city workers found a body in a secluded wooded area about 10 feet from the end of a dead-end road.
The body was under a pile of old tires and was so heavily charred and decomposed that officers could not determine the race or gender. The only clothing on the body was one sock.
Investigators were unable to do a rape examination or look for DNA under the victim’s fingernails because of the extensive burning.
They were however able to identify the body as that of Casonya using dental x-rays.
About a month later, police found “the still hot and smoking remains of a second human body.”
The body was located near the end of a dead-end street and a foot had been removed.
Dental x-rays identified the body as Mary Jo Newton and little other evidence was uncovered.
In the spring of 2008, a third victim was found in a heavily wooded area near another dead-end street.
The hands and feet of the skeletal remains were not found but the cause of death was determined to be a sharp-force injury to the neck using a cutting instrument.
The bones showed signs of burning but the victim’s identity remained unknown until the following year.
On an afternoon in March 2009, 13-year-old Esme left her home to go jogging with a purple watch and her iPod.
When the girl failed to return home a few hours later, her mother reported her missing.
Police searched nearby abandoned homes and wooded areas and eventually spotted Kirkland sitting in the woods.
They noticed knives sticking out of his pants pocket so they disarmed him and searched his person.
The search yielded a purple watch and an iPod inscribed with the words “Property of Esme.”
The officers placed Kirkland under arrest and took him in for questioning.
While he was in custody, police found Esme’s body in the woods.
She was wearing only her shoes and socks and had been propped up against a tree branch with severe burns to her groin, inner thighs and left hand.
Testing showed that her cause of death was strangulation after a long struggle and there was evidence of trauma consistent with rape.
DNA samples from Kirkland’s hands, penis and boxer shorts were consistent with Esme’s.
During an interview, Kirkland offered multiple versions of events.
Initially he denied knowledge of the missing girl.
He later admitted that he met Esme when she literally ran into him, causing him to drop his beer and lose his temper.
He admitted punching and kicking her but said he left her alive.
After detectives told Kirkland they had found Esme’s body, he said he left her with a man named Pedro and moved the body hours after the murder.
He said she died “because of my hatred” but denied doing it.
In a second interview, detectives questioned Kirkland about Casonya and Mary Jo.
He admitted knowing Mary Jo and said she was a prostitute that he had hired a couple of times.
Kirkland said he picked up Mary Jo on the day of her death and was driving with her when an argument broke out.
He admitted choking her to death and using gasoline to burn her body.
He said he burned her because “fire purifies” and it was a “proper burial” similar to those of Vikings.
“It was still daylight at the time, but no one was around, so Kirkland stayed to watch the flames,” case summary stated.
Kirkland also admitted to killing Casonya. He said she was on the phone yelling when she saw him smoking and hung up.
He said she asked him about marijuana and he offered her money “just to talk.”
The two had an argument and Casonya threw the money in his face, angering him to the point that he strangled her.
He said he burned the body then carried it to hide it beneath the tires because he “was scared.”
During that interview, he also admitted to raping Esme and choking her to death.
He said he tried to burn her but had to leave to find lighter fluid. Before he could return to the body “to perform the ritual,” police arrested him.
In a later interview, Kirkland admitted to killing a fourth individual, consistent with the unidentified skeleton police found in 2008.
He gave them her name and dental records confirmed her identity as Kimya Bodi Iamaya Corrine Rolison.
Kirkland pleaded guilty to the murder and abuse of a corpse related to Mary Jo and Kimya and the remaining counts went to a jury trial in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas.
At trial, Kirkland’s ex-girlfriend’s daughter, Kylah, testified that when she was 13, Kirkland offered her money in exchange for oral sex.
The state also presented ample other evidence related to the crimes and the jury found him guilty of the aggravated murders and several other death-penalty specifications.
The trial court imposed the death penalty and Kirkland appealed to the state’s high court.
Kirkland first argued that Kylah’s testimony was prejudicial and should not have been admitted.
The majority found, however, that the testimony was relevant to the state’s claim that Kirkland solicited and raped Casonya prior to killing her and rejected that assignment of error.
In a separate dissenting opinion, Justice Paul Pfeifer held that Kylah’s testimony showed Kirkland “to be an evil person who sexualizes underage girls.”
“Evidence that an accused committed a crime other than the one for which he is on trial is not admissible when its sole purpose is to show the accused’s propensity or inclination to commit crime, that is, to show that he acted in conformity with his bad character,” Justice Pfeifer stated.
After removing Kylah’s testimony, Justice Pfeifer said he found there was insufficient evidence to support Kirkland’s conviction for attempted rape of Casonya, as any physical evidence had been burned.
He wrote that he would remand the case for resentencing without a consideration of the attempted rape as an aggravating circumstance.
Kirkland next alleged prosecutorial misconduct in the penalty-phase closing arguments.
He pointed to the prosecutors detailed descriptions of the victim’s last moments, graphic telling of Esme asking for death, and his emphasis that Kirkland would already serve life in prison for his guilty pleas so “Casonya and Esme are just freebies for him.”
“But by suggesting that Kirkland would receive no punishment for killing Esme and Casonya unless the jury returned a verdict of death for their murders, the state asked the jury to set aside its proper assignment and return a recommendation of death based on improper considerations,” Justice Judith French wrote for the majority.
The justices all determined that the prosecutorial misconduct took place and held that it was highly prejudicial.
However, the majority maintained that it could remedy the error through an independent review of the sentence.
After weighing the mitigating factors, including Kirkland’s troubled childhood and diagnosis as a psychopath, against the gruesome nature of the crimes, the majority held that the death penalty was appropriate.
“The fact that Kirkland is a psychopath from a dysfunctional home is tragic, but not sufficient to outweigh the other aggravating circumstances of his crimes, even when coupled with the other mitigating factors identified above,” Justice French stated, affirming the lower court’s judgment.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Judith Lanzinger held that the prosecutor’s statements violated Kirkland’s rights to due process and stated that the case should be remanded for resentencing. Justice Pfeifer concurred with that analysis.
In a third dissent, Justice William O’Neill stated once again his belief that the death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and emphasized that it was even worse in this case where the prosecutor’s conduct violated Kirkland’s trial rights.
“Anthony Kirkland’s actions were monstrous — he must be punished and society must be vigilantly protected from him,” Justice O’Neill stated.
However, he maintained that the majority was mishandling the situation.
“I have stated my belief that capital punishment itself is unconstitutional; with today’s decision, the court plainly demonstrates that Ohio’s system of imposing and reviewing death sentences is unconstitutional as well,” he concluded.
The case is cited State v. Kirkland, 2014-Ohio-1966.
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