CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Ohio is set to execute a man on Wednesday who was convicted of killing a security guard and wounding a cashier at an adult book store east of Cleveland in 1994 during a week-long multistate crime spree.
Frederick Treesh, 48, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at an Ohio state prison in Lucasville, the first execution this year in Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation website.
Treesh was convicted of shooting security guard Henry Dupree four times with a 9mm handgun, killing him, and shooting cashier Louis Lauver twice in the head during a robbery at the Vine Street News store to get cash to buy crack cocaine.
Treesh then fired on police as he and an accomplice, Benjamin Brooks, fled the store. They were arrested after Treesh ran out of ammunition. Treesh was convicted of aggravated murder, attempted murder and felonious assault.
Brooks was sentenced to 40 years to life.
Prosecutors said Treesh's arrest ended a week-long, multi-state crime spree that included the murder of a man at a video store in Michigan, bank robberies, carjackings and a kidnapping.
During the spree, Treesh inserted light bulbs into his victims' mouths, wrapped their faces in duct tape and then punched them in the face to shatter the bulbs, prosecutors said.
At trial prosecutors presented a videotaped interrogation in which Treesh said he had been involved in several other murders, including the lynching of a black man. Defense attorneys at trial said those crimes were unsubstantiated "tall tales."
Defense attorney S. Adele Shank argued during his clemency hearing that Treesh and Dupree struggled over the gun and jurors would not have sentenced him to death if they had the option of life in prison without parole.
The Ohio Parole Board voted unanimously against recommending clemency for Treesh, who declined to be interviewed. Republican Governor John Kasich, who has granted clemency to four death row inmates, rejected Treesh's clemency bid.
(Reporting by Kim Palmer; Editing by David Bailey, Mary Wisniewski and Carol Bishopric)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-set-execute-man-convicted-killing-store-security-113744728.html
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