Convicted murderer Kevin Keith asks US Supreme Court for new trial

MANSFIELD - A convicted Bucyrus murderer could have his case heard by the United States Supreme Court. He's asking for a new trial.

Kevin Keith, 54, was convicted of three shooting deaths at Bucyrus Estates in 1994. Bucyrus police and Crawford County prosecutors say Keith opened fire on a group in retaliation for a drug arrest he blamed on an informant related to the shooting victims.

The three people killed were Marichell Chatman, 24; her daughter, Marchae, 4; and Chatman's aunt, Linda Chatman, 39.

Marichell Chatman's boyfriend, Rick Warren; and cousins Quanita Reeves, 7; and Quenton Reeves, 4, were wounded.

The Ohio Supreme Court turned down a request to hear an appeal of the case earlier this year. The public defenders' office then filed an appeal to the federal court in March, according to Crawford Count Prosecutor Matt Crall, who was required to give a brief to the court's nine justices by April 20.

"This is just the first step," Crall said. "It takes a long time for the whole process."

The earliest the court would likely hear the case is sometime in 2019, Crall said, especially since the justices receive more than 11,000 requests each year, but only accept about 150 cases annually.

More:Keith not giving up on brother's murder case

"But maybe one of the justices has their eye on it," Crall said.

The prosecutor said the supreme court justices are lobbied by activist groups just like senators, representatives and other lawmakers. He said it's possible the case has caught the attention of advocates who are against the death penalty.

When Keith was convicted, he was sentenced to death. In September 2010, then-Gov. Ted Strickland commuted Keith's death sentence to life without parole.

Keith's case has been appealed a number of times, most recently last year. In June, an appellate court in Lima upheld his conviction.

On Oct. 28, 2016, Crawford County Common Pleas Judge Sean Leuthold denied a motion for a new trial, which Keith's attorneys alleged was warranted because newly discovered evidence had turned up concerning a Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation forensic analyst who testified against him

When filing the motion for a new trial, Keith's attorneys said G. Michele Yezzo, the state's expert, "provided the critical forensic conclusions regarding Mr. Keith"  to try to link Keith to the crime scene. 

More:Keith's motion for new trial denied in '94 Bucyrus murders

"That expert was known to the state — though not to Mr. Keith —  as someone who will stretch the truth to satisfy a department. Since the trial her forensic conclusions have proven faulty," they said.

Crall said Yezzo's employers at the Ohio Attorney General's Office had already reviewed her conduct and reinstated her to work prior to her testimony in the Keith case. Although he was not the county's prosecutor at the time of that decision, Crall said he would not see a need to disclose Yezzo's prior investigation if the Keith case were to be held today.

Yezzo's testimony helped connect an important part of the trial. Crall said that as he was fleeing the scene of the murders, Keith drove into a snowbank — police found where his vehicle's license plate left an imprint into the snow, from which police made a plaster casting. Yezzo did a forensic analysis of the license plate imprint, as well as the tire tracks that were discovered.

In Crall's mind, enough is enough.

"It’s something that the court has decided, and then decided again," Crall said. "If they were to grant a new trial, then that’s what the court system would become — we would have a trial and then just move on to the next trial."

Keith is jailed at the Marion Correctional Institution. He's been in prison since June 1, 1994.

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