Johnny Lee Fryman won't have the biggest tab at the prison commissary after all.

        The convicted killer was ordered Tuesday to hand over the cash windfall he expected to receive as compensation for injuries he suffered in the 1993 Lucasville prison riot.

        Instead of pocketing the money himself, Mr. Fryman now must give it to his victim's family.

Fryman

        Mr. Fryman was due to collect about $50,000 as part of a court settlement involving inmates hurt in the Lucasville riot. He has told his lawyers he would use at least some of the money to buy snacks and cigarettes at the prison commissary.

        But Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Norbert Nadel ruled Tuesday the money belongs to Patricia Lemen, whose 21-year-old daughter, Monica, was killed by Mr. Fryman in 1987.

        “Under this decision, the family will get any money that Johnny Lee Fryman would have gotten from the Lucasville settlement,” Judge Nadel said Tuesday.

        Patricia Lemen argued the money should go to her because she had won a $1 million wrongful death lawsuit against Mr. Fryman in 1988.

        At the time, Mr. Fryman had just been convicted of shooting to death Monica Lemen and leaving the Price Hill woman's severed legs behind a church in Indiana. Police said the slaying was part of a Satanic ritual.

        Mr. Fryman, who is serving a life sentence, had no money when he entered prison and was declared indigent by the courts.

        But in 1993, he was stabbed and nearly killed in the Lucasville prison riot. He was one of several inmates awarded money as compensation for their injuries.

        In court last month, a defiant Mr. Fryman said he should be allowed to keep the money. He said the Lemen family's $1 million claim against him is invalid because he was never properly served with a legal notice of the lawsuit.

        Judge Nadel, however, said he didn't believe Mr. Fryman.

        Despite the ruling, the case may not be over. Mr. Fryman's lawyer, Richard Swope, said he plans to appeal the judge's decision.

        Patricia Lemen could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but her attorney, Thomas DuPuis, said she wants the case resolved as soon as possible: “My client really wishes this would come to an end. It's painful to relive it.”

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