Denny Ross to be released from prison
Sam22
Hannah Hill murder suspect finishing time in different case
By Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal staff writer
Denny Ross is getting out of prison Tuesday and still no one but he
knows whether he killed Hannah Hill.
He's been sitting in prison for two years on unrelated charges while
his attorneys and prosecutors wage a battle of appeals.
And when he walks out of the Belmont Correctional Institution, the
Springfield Township man will be free on the $1 million bond his
family paid while his murder case lingers on toward a fifth year.
There is no end in sight.
The case is in a state appeals court -- for the second time -- and no
trial date exists.
Prosecutors, who have been denied access to their own evidence, have
asked visiting retired Judge Joseph Cirigliano, 79, to remove himself
from the case.
The request -- it's usually defense attorneys who ask a judge to step
down -- came after Cirigliano's latest decision, which essentially
crippled the prosecution case and prompted another appeal by the
state.
It was the second time a Cirigliano ruling put the prosecution's case
in limbo. The first, which wiped out the indictment, delayed the case
for more than a year until it was reversed on appeal.
Meanwhile, Ross' high-powered, out-of-town defense team has threatened
to, but has not yet taken its case to federal court, where only more
delays await.
It's an option in which they're likely to explore double-jeopardy
issues or validation of the ``not guilty'' verdict forms jurors signed
before Ross' murder trial was aborted during deliberations in the fall
of 2000.
University of Akron law professor J. Dean Carro said there really has
never been a case like the Ross case, nor is one expected in the
future.
``What you're looking at are extreme and unusual turns of events,'' he
said.
Ross, 24, has been in the Ohio prison system since January 2002, when
he was sentenced for bribery, receiving stolen property and drug
trafficking, crimes unrelated to the slaying of Hill.
During his stay in prison, Ross worked as a porter, where ``you do
nearly every job in the inmate dining room,'' said prison spokeswoman
JoEllen Culp.
Inmates are required to work if they do not attend any prison
programs.
Ross was initially held at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.
Then, in May 2002, he was moved to the Belmont facility in St.
Clairsville.
He has had only minor rule violations during his stay there:
disobeying orders, refusing to work and being where he wasn't supposed
to be, Culp said.
His father, Allen Ross of Springfield Township, said he intends to
pick up his son from the prison.
``The first thing he wants to do is see his son,'' Allen Ross said.
Denny Ross is the father of a 5-year-old boy named Joe.
Hill was 18 when she was reported missing in May 1999. A week later,
her body was found stuffed in the trunk of her car on Caine Road. She
had been strangled. Ross was arrested the same day.
Akron police, publicly criticized for ignoring repeated calls about
Hill's parked car, say Ross was the last person to see her alive. Her
allegedly jealous and obsessive ex-boyfriend was quickly dismissed as
a suspect for reasons that police have never explained.
Key evidence
The key piece of evidence against Ross was a bag of Hill's clothing
found in bushes below his apartment on Canton Road on the night he was
arrested.
Ross' semen was found on Hill's underwear. More than a year later,
scientists found his blood on her pants pockets. Inside his apartment,
there was no evidence Hill was ever there, only Ross' admission that
she visited briefly and they ``fooled around and stuff'' on the night
she disappeared.
In October 2000, Ross went on trial. A loss would have meant a
possible death sentence. During deliberations, Judge Jane Bond
declared a mistrial amid claims that one juror had talked about a
polygraph test passed by Hill's former boyfriend. No such evidence was
introduced during the trial.
Bond declared the mistrial and dismissed the jury before deliberations
ended. Only later, she said, did she and others learn that the jurors
had already voted to acquit Ross of aggravated murder, murder and
rape.
Bond was eventually removed from the case and a Stark County judge was
assigned, but quickly withdrew. Cirigliano, a retired judge from
Lorain County who often sparred with prosecutors during his tenure on
the bench, then was assigned the case.
One of his first rulings let Ross' family use property to post the $1
million bond. He later ruled that trying Ross a second time would
constitute double jeopardy.
His ruling was reversed in a 2-1 decision by the 9th District Court of
Appeals. The Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear Ross' appeal.
Rape charge out
Last September, Cirigliano declined several defense motions, including
a request to dismiss the case for lack of evidence. Two months later,
claiming his ruling was inadvertent, he reconsidered his decision and
threw out the rape charge and the possibility of a death penalty that
it carried.
Cirigliano ruled that although Ross' semen was found on Hill's
underwear and that evidence at trial suggested she had intercourse the
night she was beaten and strangled to death, the state failed to prove
``that sexual conduct, including penetration, between (Ross and Hill)
took place.''
Prosecutors immediately appealed, arguing that such post-trial rulings
are usually made by judges who hear the case at trial. Bond, the trial
judge, had twice rejected throwing out the rape charge.
Prosecutors also claim that Cirigliano based his decision on evidence
not presented at trial, particularly the new revelation that a dental
expert was wrong when he said he found a bite mark on Hill's arm that
could have been caused by Ross.
Critical of judge
Two weeks ago, special prosecutor John Mitchell filed a motion asking
Cirigliano to remove himself. Mitchell declined to comment on the
motion and on previous motions he filed seeking to review case
evidence, which Cirigliano denied.
Cirigliano could not be reached for comment last week.
Las Vegas attorney David Chesnoff heads the Ross defense team of five
attorneys. He was critical of the prosecution's appeals and the
request that Cirigliano step down.
``I think it's inappropriate,'' Chesnoff said. ``I think he's doing it
because the state doesn't like the fact that Judge Cirigliano is
trying to bring justice to the case.''
Cirigliano has yet to rule on the request to remove himself from the
case. If he refuses, the state could ask the Ohio Supreme Court to
intercede.
Hannah Hill's family has moved from Akron. They could not be reached
for comment.
The case has garnered national attention. American Justice, a national
cable TV show, featured the case in 2002. Dateline NBC is expected to
air a story on the case sometime this year.
``I think if there's a lesson to be learned from this case, it is that
our legal system, although slowly, oftentimes works well,'' Carro from
UA said.