Friday, September 10, 1999

Jury urges death for Lynch

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Pedophile will be sentenced in October

BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Ralph Lynch is escorted back to jail Thursday after the jury recommended the death sentence. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        Jurors on Thursday recommended that Ralph L. Lynch receive the death penalty, saying they did not agree with defense arguments that his childhood of sexual abuse mitigated the strangling of his 6-year-old neighbor, Mary Jennifer Love, last year.

        If Judge Robert Kraft accepts the jury's recommendation, Mr. Lynch will become the 47th person from Hamilton County to receive the death sentence. A decision is expected Oct. 13.

        A jury of seven men and five women recommended that Mr. Lynch be sentenced to death on each of the three counts of aggravated murder during the sentencing phase of his capital murder trial, which began Aug. 23 in Common Pleas Court.

Carol Williams, the mother of Mary Love, is embraced by a member of the county prosecutor's staff after hearing the jury's recommendation. | ZOOM |

        Carol and Mark Williams, parents of the young girl killed by Mr. Lynch in his apartment on June 24, 1998, said justice was served Thursday. The couple clutched hands as the verdict was read.

        “I heard exactly what I've been waiting 14 months to hear,” said a teary-eyed Mrs. Williams. She left the courtroom holding a photo button of her daughter. In the photo, the young girl wears colorful beads on her braids. “I'm extremely happy.”

        Before issuing a verdict, jurors asked to hear for the second time the testimony of clinical psychologist Jill Bley. Dr. Bley testified Wednesday that Mr. Lynch, 48, told her he was abused by a female teacher when he was 14 and forced to abuse female classmates in front of the teacher.

        Coretta Stallworth said she and fellow jurors understood the arguments that Mr. Lynch's abuse led him to become a pedophile.

Mary Love

        “We understood his childhood caused him to rape (Mary), but we couldn't understand why it caused him to murder her,” said Ms. Stallworth, 28, of Madisonville. “He had to do it for other reasons — and that was to escape being detained.”

        Throughout Mr. Lynch's trial, defense attorneys — who declined to talk Thursday after the verdict — did not dispute that he fondled and killed Mary Love. They did argue that he put his hands around her neck to stop her crying — not to kill her.

        Prosecutors maintained that Mr. Lynch invited Mary Love to his Colerain Township apartment so he could sexually abuse her. When he had finished, they said, Mr. Lynch wrapped her in a vacuum cleaner bag and drove her body to a secluded woods.

        When neighbors and family searched for the girl, Mr. Lynch joined them. A week later, he led police to her body.

        “We feel that it was a just verdict under the circumstances,” said Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen, who embraced Mrs. Williams after the verdict. “Nothing can bring their little girl back, but if anything, this is justice for them and justice for Mary.”

       

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