Thursday, December 09, 1999
Killer convicted after five years
BY DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Janetta Lynch will visit her sister's grave today. She will kneel and tell her sister that she has kept her promise: The man who killed her is going to prison.
“We've done everything we can do,” Ms. Lynch said Wednesday. “It won't bring her back, but it might at least bring us peace.”
Five years after Ms. Lynch first vowed to “see justice done,” a Hamilton County jury convicted David Neeley of stabbing to death her sister, Judy Lynn Smith, in Norwood's Millcrest Park.
The verdict came Wednesday after six hours of deliberations. It ended a murder case that began June 1, 1994, when picnicking second-graders found Miss Smith's body.
Throughout the trial in Common Pleas Court, prosecutors portrayed Mr. Neeley as a violent, jealous man who repeatedly abused and threatened his ex-girlfriend before finally killing her.
They said Mr. Neeley met her in the park that day under the pretense of giving her a check that had been mailed to the house they used to share.
Miss Smith, 30, had a court order to keep Mr. Neeley away, prosecutors said, but he insisted on meeting her to give her the check. They said he stabbed the Norwood woman dozens of times before leaving her body behind some bushes.
The court order was found in her purse, near the body.
Assistant prosecutor Seth Tieger told jurors that Mr. Neeley killed Miss Smith to prevent her from testifying against him in a domestic violence case.
If she had testified, Mr. Tieger said, Mr. Neeley feared he would be sent back to prison in Kentucky to serve out a 10-year sentence in an unrelated assault case. He was free on bond pending an appeal.
But Mr. Neeley's attorney, Perry Ancona, said police had no physical evidence linking his client to the crime. He said investigators focused immediately on Mr. Neeley and refused to consider other possible suspects.
Mr. Neeley was not indicted until 1997. Prosecutors say they took time to build their case because they knew he would be locked up on the assault charge.
During the trial, Mr. Ancona objected repeatedly when prosecutors mentioned Mr. Neeley's conviction in the assault case. He also objected to testimony about Mr. Neeley's tumultuous relationship with Miss Smith.
Some of those issues could be raised again if Mr. Neeley appeals the guilty verdict.
“There are some very important appellate issues,” Mr. Ancona said. “We're very disappointed in the verdict.”
Ms. Lynch, however, said her family is grateful to the jury.
“It's finally done,” she said. “David Neeley killed my sister. He'll get his time for it, and we'll move on.”
Judge Richard Niehaus could sentence Mr. Neeley to 20 years to life later this month.
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