Ohio Executes Man Convicted In '92 Killing Spree

LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- Ohio executed a man who took part in a 1992 Christmas holiday killing spree that left six people dead and two wounded.

Marvallous Keene died by lethal injection at 10:36 a.m. Tuesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, one week after the state's last execution.

The 36-year-old Keene and three accomplices went on a three-day murder and robbery rampage in Dayton that began on Christmas Eve 1992. The victims included an 18-year-old mother gunned down at a pay phone, a convenience store clerk and two teenage acquaintances whom Keene feared would tell police about his crimes.

Prosecutors say Keene was the triggerman in four of the five deaths for which he was convicted. His three accomplices are serving life sentences.

Gov. Ted Strickland denied clemency last week for Keene, who didn't request it. At a June 17 clemency hearing, Keene directed his attorneys not to present evidence on his behalf, saying he didn't want to cause additional pain to his family or to the victims' families.

Keene and three accomplices went on a three-day murder and robbery rampage in Dayton that began on Christmas Eve 1992.

Other victims included Sarah Abraham, 38, a convenience store clerk shot in the head after handing over $30 from a cash register, and Marvin Washington and Wendy Cottrill, two teenage acquaintances who Keene feared would tell police about his crimes.

His three accomplices are serving life sentences.

Keene was examined Monday by the prison's medical staff for suitable injection sites. No problems with his veins were reported, prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said.

He made a phone call Monday night to his stepfather in Dayton that lasted more than two hours and then requested a muscle-relaxing drug that was provided by prison staff, Walburn said.

Keene didn't sleep overnight and appeared restless in his cell, alternately standing and sitting while scanning channels on a television set, she said. He also declined to meet with a religious services administrator at the prison.

Nine members of the victims' families were expected to witness Tuesday's execution. Keene's two defense attorneys were to be his only witnesses.

Defense attorneys said Keene, who was 19 at the time of the slayings, was despondent over the death of his brother, who was shot and killed a year earlier. At his trial, Keene also told a three-judge panel that a falling-out with his father contributed to his troubled emotional state.

Prosecutors described Keene as the ringleader of a group that called itself the Downtown Posse. The killings began with 34-year-old Joseph Wilkerson.

Keene and his accomplices arrived at Wilkerson's home under the pretext of wanting to participate in an orgy, prosecutors said. They tied Wilkerson to his bed and ransacked the house, and when Keene found a .32-caliber handgun in the garage, he returned to the bedroom and shot Wilkerson twice.

Later Christmas Eve, Keene and accomplice DeMarcus Smith approached 18-year-old Danita Gullette at a pay phone, took her jacket and shoes and fatally shot the woman, prosecutors said. Gullette was the mother of a 2-year-old girl.

Washington, 18, and Cottrill, 16, were acquaintances who sometimes stayed at Keene's apartment and observed Keene returning with stolen items, prosecutors aid. They were shot and killed behind a gravel pit.

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