BY KRISTEN DELGUZZI
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Rayshawn Johnson is led from the courtroom after the guilty verdict.
(Craig Ruttle photo)
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As they were sent off to begin their deliberations Monday, jurors were asked to show Rayshawn Johnson the same mercy he showed Shanon Marks.
Shanon Marks
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The seven men and five women wasted no time.
Less than five hours after they began considering the death penalty case, jurors returned to the courtroom to pronounce Mr. Johnson guilty of all five charges against him.
The 20-year-old, who could become the 42nd Hamilton County man on Ohio's death row, did not flinch as the verdicts were read. Behind him, though, his girl friend, Abby Glenn, was sobbing. Next to her, his grandmother, Miriam Faulkner, shielded her face with her purse.
In the neighboring rows of benches, Mrs. Marks' relatives blinked back tears. Her mother clutched a tissue to her face and cried. Mrs. Marks' husband, Norman, could not bear to be in court, but Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters phoned him as soon as the verdicts were read.
Next to Mrs. Marks' mother, a Cincinnati homicide detective reached out to congratulate Nicole Sroufe, who was unharmed when Mr. Johnson accosted her outside her apartment.
Three of the charges - including aggravated murder - stemmed from the Nov. 12 beating death of Mrs. Marks. Two others related to the Sept. 8 attack on Ms. Sroufe.
Unlike Ms. Sroufe, Mrs. Marks had nowhere to run when Mr. Johnson attacked her in the bedroom of her East Walnut Hills home as she was getting ready for work. Within minutes, he had brutally beaten her in the head with a baseball bat.
Her husband found her 13 hours later, behind a closed door, lying in a puddle of blood on the bathroom floor. She had been struck eight times in the head and had at least five wounds on her arms from trying to fend off her attacker.
"After this horrible assault, she falls down, her jaw broken, and she crawls back into that corner," Mr. Deters said in closing arguments. "She would crawl through the bathtub wall if she could."
He also said that before Mrs. Marks died, she shut the door to keep Mr. Johnson away.
But it did not work.
So that Mrs. Marks would not live to identify her attacker, Mr. Johnson pushed into the room and delivered "three crushing blows to the back of the skull as she lay face down," Mr. Deters said.
Defense attorneys, who did not present any witnesses or testimony on Mr. Johnson's behalf, argued that he was wrongfully accused. They said no physical evidence linked him to the scene. They also said three tape-recorded confessions were disingenuous.
"What I'm saying to you is that it's possible for people to give a false confession," defense lawyer Pete Pandilidis said.
But when asked whether Mr. Johnson had explained why he would admit to a crime he did not commit, Mr. Pandilidis said, "No."
On Thursday, all parties will return to Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman's courtroom for a sentencing hearing. In capital cases, jurors decide the punishment.
To persuade the jury to vote for a life sentence instead of death, defense attorneys will present testimony about Mr. Johnson's drug use, his school history and his broken family. He was raised by his grandmother because, according to testimony, his mother is a drug addict and his father is a deadbeat. A psychiatrist will testify about Mr. Johnson's mental health. And Mr. Johnson may address the jury.
But prosecutors will urge the jury to impose a death sentence, citing the brutality of the crime and Mr. Johnson's cavalier attitude about his actions.
"Throughout this trial, he has never once shown remorse for anything he's done," assistant prosecutor Thomas Longano said during closing arguments. "He never flinched, even when we showed the pictures of Shanon's badly battered body. He didn't flinch because he doesn't care."
