By Denise G. Callahan
Dayton Daily News
HAMILTON, Ohio — The debate over Ohio’s death penalty laws is heating up, just as Butler County is about to try its second capital case in less than a year.
What police say was a random act of violence ended the life of an elderly Middletown man last May. The suspect in his slaying, Victor Gantt, faces a possible death sentence when his trial begins Tuesday.
In the past five years, Butler County has had eight cases that qualified for the death penalty. Most recently, a jury spared Hector Alvarenga-Retana’s life after his murder trial last November. He was convicted of killing of two rival gang members. Warren County hasn’t had a death penalty case since 2008, after Michel Veillette murdered his family in Mason. He committed suicide in jail before the case went to trial.
Gantt is accused of beating 75-year-old Leroy Jones to death with an ax. Police said Gantt broke through a glass door, attacked Jones and then trashed his house.
Assistant Prosecutor Brad Burress says because the slaying occurred while Gantt was allegedly robbing and burglarizing Jones, the case qualifies as a capital offense.
Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser declined to comment on the Gantt case.
Ohio has become a focal point because one of the senior members of the Supreme Court, Justice Paul Pfeifer - who helped draft the first constitutional death penalty laws in the state - has publicly opposed the death penalty. Now Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters has asked the justice to recuse himself in all death penalty cases and any case from his jurisdiction. Pfeifer has made comments about the large number of death row inmates that hail from Hamilton County.
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