Ohio man who sexually assaulted baby seeks mercy

This undated photo released by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections shows Steven Smith. Smith, a condemned Ohio killer is making an unusual plea for mercy ahead of his scheduled execution next month. Attorneys for Steven Smith tell the state parole board that while he intended to rape his girlfriend's 6-month-old daughter, Smith never intended to kill the girl. (AP Photo/Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Condemned killer Steven Smith's argument for mercy isn't an easy one. Smith acknowledges he intended to sexually assault his girlfriend's 6-month-old daughter but says he never intended to kill the baby.

The girl, Autumn Carter, of Mansfield, died because Smith was too drunk to realize his sexual assault was killing the child, Smith's attorneys planned to tell the Ohio Parole Board on Tuesday. And Ohio law is clear, they say: a death sentence requires an intent to kill the victim.

"The evidence suggests that Autumn's death was a horrible accident," his attorneys, Joseph Wilhelm and Tyson Fleming, said in a written argument prepared for the board.

They continued: "Despite the shocking nature of this crime, Steve'sdeath sentence should be commuted because genuine doubts exist whether he even committed a capital offense."

Smith, 46, was never charged with sexual assault, meaning the jury's only choice was to convict or acquit him of aggravated murder, his attorneys say.

The Richland County prosecutor says Smith continues to hide behind alcohol as an excuse, and calls Smith's actions "the purposeful murder of a helpless baby girl."

Prosecutor James Mayer told the board in his own written statement that the girl's injuries are consistent with a homicide that contradicts Smith's claim he didn't intend to kill the girl.

"The horrific attack upon Autumn Carter showed much more than Smith's stated purpose," Mayer said.

Mayer said Monday he didn't know why Smith wasn't charged with rape, but said it wasn't part of a trial strategy.

The attack happened early in the morning of Sept. 29, 1998, in the Mansfield apartment of the girl's mother, Kaysha Frye, a woman Smith had been dating about six months.

Frye was awakened after 3 a.m. by a naked Smith, who placed Autumn beside her in bed, according to records prepared for the parole board hearing. Frye realized the girl wasn't breathing, told Smith he'd killed her, then ran to a neighbor's house for help.

Smith, known to consume as many as 12 beers a day, had had several beers earlier in the evening and had a blood-alcohol content of .123 — well above the legal limit — when he was tested almost eight hours later, at 11 a.m., records show.

Smith had unsuccessfully tried to have sex with his girlfriend the evening before the attack, according to records. The prosecutor argued that Smith's assault of the girl was revenge for Smith's failure to perform with Frye.

Smith's attorneys dispute this, saying the girlfriend was not upset with Smith.

Prosecutors presented evidence at trial that Smith's attack lasted as long as 30 minutes, during which time Smith beat the girl to death.

Expert witnesses for Smith conclude he may have accidentally suffocated the girl within three to five minutes while he lay on top of her, according to Smith's clemency petition.

Smith's attorneys have an uphill battle in their argument because of the "moral repugnancy" surrounding the claim of partial innocence, said Doug Berman, an Ohio State University law professor and death penalty expert.

"But if the lawyers for this defendant can legitimately assert that the evidence doesn't show or support that this was an intentional killing, not only is it appropriate to bring this up at clemency, I think they're obliged, representing their client appropriately, to stress this point," Berman said.

If executed, Smith would become the 51st inmate put to death in Ohio since the state resumed executions in 1999. The state has enough of its lethal injection drug, pentobarbital, to execute Smith and two other inmates before the supply expires. Eight more inmates are scheduled to die from November through mid-2015.

___

Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus

Afghan Girl, 6, Rescued from Child Bride Fate; Countless Others not so Lucky

Taj Mohammad and his daughter, Naghma, at right. Photo: Bryan Denton/The New York Times/Redux

Relative: No motive in Easter shooting in Ohio

Reshad Riddle appears in Ashtabula Municipal Court Monday, April 1, 2013, in Ashtabula, Ohio. Riddle went to the Hiawatha Church of God in Christ and killed his father, 52-year-old Richard Riddle, with a single shot from a handgun Sunday afternoon. Riddle is charged with aggravated murder and two weapons counts. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

ASHTABULA, Ohio (AP) — Panicked witnesses to a fatal Easter service shooting in Ohio feared many might be killed as the victim's son approached the pulpit, waving a handgun and yelling about God and Allah.

"Tragic as it is, it could have been so much worse," Rev. Steve Sargent, associate pastor of the Hiawatha Church of God in Christ in Ashtabula, said Monday as he pointed out where the gunman moved through the sanctuary.

Michael Wofford, 59, a worshipper who attended Sunday's service with his wife and two grandchildren, said he feared a shooting rampage after the gunman finished his spiel from the pulpit area.

"Is he going to just walk out of the church or is he going to start shooting people at random," Wofford asked in the church vestibule. "Sooner or later he's going to run out of words. It could have been much worse."

Police say Reshad Riddle, 28, went to the church and killed his father, 53-year-old Richard Riddle, with a single shot from a handgun Sunday afternoon.

The suspect appeared Monday in Ashtabula Municipal Court with his ankles and wrists shackled.

Riddle made rambling comments about God and said he wanted to be treated fairly. The judge agreed to appoint a public defender.

The prosecutor asked for $1 million bail and, if he makes it, a psychiatric evaluation and 24-hour monitoring.

Ann Riddle, sister of the victim and aunt of the suspect, said later the family knew of no possible motive.

Riddle, receiving friends at the family home, called her brother a loving and caring family member. "He was a devoted family member, he was always there for the family. He cared a lot about people," said Riddle, who declined to comment on other aspects of the case.

After shooting the victim, the gunman then walked down the side aisle of the church, decorated with lilies for Easter, and sent panicked worshippers crawling over blue padded pews, running for the doors and climbing out windows in adjacent rooms.

"He seemed to be like he was deranged. I don't know if he was on something," Sargent said while arranging a group counseling session for traumatized church members.

"My suspicion is that he may have been on something, some mind-altering chemical that caused him to act out like he did."

Associate Pastor Sean Adams told The (Ashtabula) Star Beacon newspaper that Reshad Riddle walked through the church, still holding the gun, and yelled that the killing was "the will of Allah. This is the will of God."

Some worshippers hid in a bathroom until police arrived, according audio of a 911 call made from the restroom. The female caller told a dispatcher she'd seen the armed man, wearing black and red, walk across the yard quickly.

"We can hear him. He's got a gun, and he's in there trying to preach," she says, pleading for police to come quickly while yelling is heard intermittently in the background. Officers arrived and apprehended the suspect within four minutes of her call.

Ashtabula Police Chief Robert Stell said the younger Riddle offered no motive for the shooting.

"Witnesses at the scene said the shooter entered church and made some references to Allah, but we are not sure if that was a motive or if there was a family problem," Stell said. "There is no indication that the father and son had a bad relationship. Everyone thinks this was very surprising."

Court records show Reshad Riddle has an extensive criminal record.

Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court records show he was arrested and charged with two counts of felonious assault, kidnapping, abduction and tampering with evidence in 2006.

Records show that in 2007, Reshad Riddle was charged with felonious assault, and in 2009 he was charged with possession of drugs, tampering with evidence and possession of cocaine.

According to police reports, one of the felonious assault charges stemmed from an incident when Reshad Riddle allegedly attempted to cut his girlfriend's throat. Capt. Joseph Cellitti said the young woman's neck had been cut with a knife and she suffered bruising on her side and chest.

Church parishioners said Reshad Riddle was a member of the church as a child, but did not attend services regularly as an adult.

"No one would have thought twice about him being here with his family on Easter," Adams said. "His family (has) been members here for years and years."

___

Associated Press writer Kantele Franko in Columbus contributed to this report

Texas DA's killing puts other prosecutors on alert

Killing of district attorney and his wife puts other Texas prosecutors on high alert

Associated Press -

KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) -- After one of his assistant prosecutors was gunned down in January,Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland carried a gun everywhere, even when walking the dog.

He was extra careful when answering the door at his home outside of Forney, about 20 miles east of Dallas. And a neighbor said a sheriff's deputy was stationed outside the home for about a month after the killing.

On Saturday, McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found shot to death in their house. Authorities haven't said much about their investigation, including whether they have any leads or a theory about why the couple was killed. But law enforcement throughout Texas is on high alert, and steps are being taken to better protect other DAs and their staffs.

Tarrant County District Attorney Joe Shannon said his staff has been cautioned, but he declined to discuss the specific security measures that have been taken. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins declined to comment on the issue, citing safety concerns.

Harris County District Attorney Mike Anderson said he accepted the Houston sheriff's offer of 24-hour security for him and his family after learning about the slayings, mostly over concerns for his family's safety. Anderson said he also would take precautions at his office, the largest one in Texas, which has more than 270 prosecutors.

"I think district attorneys across Texas are still in a state of shock," Anderson said Sunday.

Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes said little at a brief news conference Sunday about the McLelland investigation, and he deflected questions about possible suspects. He said security would be stepped up at the courthouse in Kaufman, but he declined to say what other steps might be taken to protect the other prosecutors in McLelland's office. The DA's Office will remain closed Monday.

McLelland, 63, is the 13th prosecutor killed in the U.S. since the National Association of District Attorneys began keeping count in the 1960s.

The couple's slayings came less than two weeks after Colorado's prison chief was shot to death at his front door, apparently by an ex-convict, and a couple of months after Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was killed in a parking lot a block from his courthouse office. No arrests have been made in Hasse's slaying Jan. 31.

Byrnes would not give details Sunday of how the killings unfolded and said there was nothing to indicate for certain whether the DA's slaying was connected to Hasse's.

El Paso County, Colo., sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Joe Roybal said investigators had found no evidence so far connecting the Texas killings to the Colorado case, but added: "We're examining all possibilities."

Colorado's corrections director, Tom Clements, was killed March 19 when he answered the doorbell at his home outside Colorado Springs. Evan Spencer Ebel, a white supremacist and former Colorado inmate suspected of shooting Clements, died in a shootout with Texas deputies two days later about 100 miles from Kaufman.

McLelland himself, in an Associated Press interview shortly after the Colorado slaying, raised the possibility that Hasse was gunned down by a white supremacist gang.

McLelland, elected DA in 2010, said his office had prosecuted several cases against racist gangs, who have a strong presence around Kaufman County, a mostly rural area dotted with subdivisions, with a population of about 104,000.

"We put some real dents in the Aryan Brotherhood around here in the past year," he said.

In recent years, the DA's office also prosecuted a case in which a justice of the peace was found guilty of theft and burglary and another case in which a man was convicted of killing his former girlfriend and her 10-year-old daughter.

McLelland said he carried a gun everywhere around town, a bedroom community for the Dallas area. He figured assassins were more likely to try to attack him outside. He said he had warned all his employees to be constantly on the alert.

"The people in my line of work are going to have to get better at it," he said of dealing with the danger, "because they're going to need it more in the future."

The number of attacks on prosecutors, judges and senior law enforcement officers in the U.S. has spiked in the past three years, according to Glenn McGovern, an investigator with the Santa Clara County, Calif., district attorney's office who tracks such cases.

For about a month after Hasse's slaying, sheriff's deputies were parked in the district attorney's driveway, said Sam Rosander, a McLelland neighbor.

The FBI and the Texas Rangers joined the investigation into the McLellands' deaths.

McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, 65, were the parents of two daughters and three sons. One son is a police officer in Dallas. The couple had moved into the home a few years ago, Forney Mayor Darren Rozell said.

"Real friendly, became part of our community quickly," Rozell said. "They were a really pleasant, happy couple."

___

Prosecutors Are 'Under Attack,' Texas District Attorney Says

Prosecutors around the country are "under attack" and should consider having a security detail as a way of life, the Dallas County district attorney told ABC News.

The exclusive interview with DA Craig Watkins came days after Kaufman County DA Mike McLellandand his wife were murdered in their home. Weeks earlier, McLelland's top assistant was also gunned down. Police have few clues to either killing.

In addition, Colorado's prison chief was shot to death in his home.

"Obviously we're under attack," Watkins said. "We've had two district attorneys lose their lives and we've had one law enforcement official in Colorado who lost their lives because of the job that they do. I think one time may cause questions, two times may cause concern, but three? This is the opportunity for us to advocate for adequate security for all individuals who are in the law enforcement realm."

RELATED: Slain Texas Prosecutor Replaced by His Female Deputy

Watkins, who is the first African-American DA in the history of the state of Texas, said he's received death threats in the past.

"We've been dealing with issues since I got elected," said Watkins who won the job in 2006. "We didn't take them seriously, but after what we've seen in the last month or so it's time for us to take a position that we need to look at this and take it seriously."

Watkins has decided to beef up security measures to make sure he and his staff are now protected.

"My wife actually is very concerned about it," said Watkins. "I have three kids that are also concerned because they saw the news coverage and they're starting to ask questions of me and what am I going to do to make sure that they're protected."

'''Dad, what are you going to do to make sure we get to school and we get home safely?'" Watkins said his kids ask him. "'Because if they would do it in small Kaufman County you're the second largest district attorney's office in the state of Texas so why wouldn't they do it to you?'"

Watkins said he's assured his kids they will be safe, but wouldn't go into the specific details about what measures he's now taking to protect his family and his staff.

He believes going forward security will become a way of life.

"I was always amazed when I first took office that you would have the mayor of the city of Dallas with a security detail but there was not one for the DA," said Watkins. "So I would imagine that these security details would be put in place for the duration of the existence of the district attorney's office in Dallas County and throughout the state of Texas."