The Associated Press
and The Cincinnati Enquirer
Gary Lee Hughbanks Jr. was sentenced to death Monday for the brutal slaying of a Springfield Township couple in 1987.
"This was their castle, their safest place," Judge Melba Marsh said in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. "In one evening you turned that safe place into a slaughtering ground. You watched them as the blood of life dripped from their bodies."
Mr. Hughbanks, 31, asked that his life be spared even though he admitted killing William Leeman, 55, and Juanita Leeman, 53, in 1987. He had broken into their Adams Road home intent on robbery and slashed their throats after he was discovered.
With the victims' family looking on, Judge Marsh told Mr. Hughbanks: "You showed no mercy for your victims, and this court will show you no mercy."
Judge Marsh followed the recommendation of the jury, which in June recommended a death sentence for two counts of aggravated murder and one count of aggravated burglary.
The Leemans' relatives said the judge's sentence gave them closure.
"The biggest strife we've had through the whole thing was not knowing," said Burt Leeman, one of the couple's sons. "There were just too many unanswered questions."
Three sons and their wives had watched much of the trial.
The brothers said after the jury recommended a death penalty that the murder of their parents and the trial have made them a closer family.
Burt Leeman, 43, of Columbus said that, since the murders, he had not visited the home where he grew up.
Police discovered the Leemans' bodies May 13, 1987, at their Springfield Township home.
William Leeman suffered multiple stab wounds and was found in the bedroom. Police said Mr. Hughbanks caught Mrs. Leeman as she tried to flee and cut her throat.
She crawled out to the driveway. A police officer found her there, bleeding to death.
Mr. Hughbanks -- with his history of burglaries -- was questioned after the killings.
But there was not enough evidence to link him to the crime.
The investigation bogged down until Mr. Hughbanks' brother implicated him last year, based on remarks Gary Hughbanks had made. Mr. Hughbanks was arrested in Tucson, Ariz., and told investigators that he had broken into the Leemans' house and killed the couple. At his trial last month, Mr. Hughbanks repeated his confession and told jurors he did not deserve mercy.
Mr. Hughbanks will get an automatic appeal. The last execution in Ohio was in 1963.
He becomes the 183rd person in Ohio on death row, and the 43rd from Hamilton County.
