The Akron Legal News

Murder conviction affirmed for man who strangled schizophrenic friend

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 21, 2015

Three judges impaneled in the 11th District Court of Appeals recently affirmed a murder conviction out of Lake County.

Marvin Dale Lambert Jr. was found guilty by a jury in the county court of common pleas for the murder of his friend and neighbor, John Funari. He was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

Case summary states that Lambert and Funari lived at the Madison Inn, a group of six efficiency apartments in Madison Township.

Other residents included Dale Vanderlip, who lived next door to Funari, Lambert’s uncle Allen Gray and James Fogel.

Court documents state that Funari suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and that Lambert was his best friend. His mother handled his finances and sent him spending money.

On the day of his death, Feb. 9, 2014, Funari went to a medical appointment in the morning.

Upon returning to his apartment, he lent Lambert a small sum of money that he received from his mother so that Lambert could buy bread and beer at the local market.

Later that afternoon, Vanderlip heard Funari and Lambert arguing in Funari’s apartment.

He testified that he heard banging and the sound of items being thrown so he called the apartment manager, Lydia Laiosa.

As Vanderlip made the call, he heard one final loud bang against the wall and then complete silence.

He then heard someone leave the apartment and slam the door.

At trial, he testified that he assumed it was Lambert because he had a habit of slamming doors and the footsteps he heard headed toward Lambert’s apartment door.

Over the next two days, Vanderlip said he heard the sound of the radio and TV playing constantly in Funari’s apartment.

This was unusual, he said, because Funari would turn these devices off when he was out or sleeping.

Vanderlip also said he noticed that Funari’s window air conditioning unit had been taken out and placed on the ground outside of the apartment.

In response to the noise, Vanderlip texted Laiosa, the apartment manager. When she came to check on the apartment, she found Funari’s body lying on the floor.

Responding paramedics determined that Funari had been dead at least 36 hours and an autopsy found strangulation to be the cause of death. Funari had blood on his face and bruising on his neck and hair was found in his hand.

A forensic examiner for the FBI excluded all of Funari’s neighbors as contributors of the hair but could not exclude Lambert.

Lambert’s DNA was also found underneath Funari’s fingernails, on Funari’s pants and on beer bottles left in the apartment.

Though Lambert always maintained that Funari was fine when he last saw him, the details of his story changed several times over the course of multiple interviews with the police.

He was charged by way of secret indictment with two counts of murder and a jury trial commenced on Aug. 18, 2014.

After he was found guilty and sentenced, Lambert filed a timely appeal with the 11th District court, arguing that he should have been granted a competency evaluation midtrial.

Court documents state that Lambert received two competency evaluations before his trial began and was found competent in both, though prone to agitation and irritability.

“At trial, Mr. Lambert acted in an erratic fashion,” Judge Colleen Mary O’Toole wrote on behalf of the court of appeals.

At one point, Lambert stood up, announced that he did not want to be in court and then demanded that his assistant counsel remove his glasses.

Then, out of the hearing of the jury, the trial court noted that Lambert was closely watching his assistant defense counsel’s pens and pencils. The court voiced its concern that he might “grab one and poke counsel in the eye.”

The trial court removed Lambert from the court room and placed him in a conference room where he could watch the trial.

However, deputies eventually moved him to a holding cell after he slammed his head into a wall and tried to bite an officer.

Lambert also pulled out some of his hair and screamed that he wanted a haircut, but that the barber would kill him.

The following day, Lambert was allowed back in the courtroom but was removed after another outburst.

“At one point, defense counsel suggested that the (court appointed psychologist) have a brief meeting with Mr. Lambert to see if he still considered him competent,” O’Toole wrote. “However, he never moved the court for a re-evaluation, and the trial court put on record its determination that, while full of anger, Mr. Lambert was competent and was acting out in an attempt to postpone trial.”

The appellate panel held that “calculated rudeness, outbursts in curt and abuse of defense counsel do not necessarily support a finding of incompetence.”

It held that Lambert’s argument that he should have been granted a third evaluation had little merit.

In his remaining arguments on appeal, Lambert argued that the prosecutor made improper remarks at trial and that his convictions were against the sufficiency and manifest weight of the evidence.

The appellate panel first ruled that the prosecutor’s statements did not constitute reversible error and then it pointed to the overwhelming evidence against Lambert.

“The evidence in this case is circumstantial,” O’Toole wrote. “However, the Ohio Supreme Court has held that circumstantial evidence and direct evidence inherently possess the same probative value.”

O’Toole concluded by affirming the judgment of the Lake County court with Judges Diane Grendell and Thomas Wright concurring.

The case is cited State v. Lambert, 2015-Ohio-4018.

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