The Akron Legal News

Inmate who led killing spree of snitches during prison riot loses appeal

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: September 16, 2015

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recdntly ruled that habeas relief was properly denied for Keith LaMar, a prison inmate who was sentenced to death for the murder of five fellow inmates.

LaMar appealed from the judgment of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio at Cincinnati where he raised 25 claims in a federal habeas corpus petition in 2004.

The district court denied the petition and denied LaMar’s motion to amend the petition after ruling that it was barred by the statute of limitations.

In his appeal to the 6th Circuit Court, LaMar argued that the state withheld favorable evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, that the trial court erred in refusing to sever one of the murder charges, that the state presented insufficient evidence of kidnapping as an aggravating factor, that the prosecutor committed misconduct and that the district court erred in denying his motion to amend his federal habeas petition.

The warden, Marc Houk, cross-appealed from the judgment of the district court, arguing that LaMar’s habeas petition was untimely and not saved by equitable tolling.

“We need not decide whether LaMar’s petition was timely or saved by equitable tolling because his petition fails on the merits,” Judge John Rogers wrote in the opinion that he authored on behalf of the court of appeals’ three-judge appellate panel.

According to the facts of the case, on the afternoon of April 11, 1993, LaMar was an inmate at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility serving a sentence of 18 years to life for a 1989 murder conviction,

That day, a group of Muslim inmates seized control of cellblock “L,” took several guards hostage and locked various inmates whom they considered to be “snitches” into various cells in the L-6 section of L-Block.

The Muslim inmates maintained control of unit L-6 while two other dominant groups — the Aryan Brotherhood and the Black Gangster Disciples — controlled other units within L-Block.

On the day of the riot, LaMar was not initially involved. He was in the prison recreation yard when the riot began but when he and other inmates went inside to check on their cells, they were not allowed back outside because the Muslim inmates had closed access to and from L-Block.

According to summary, LaMar said to his fellow inmates, “Ain’t no need in us staying in here getting caught up in something we’re not a part of. Let’s kill all the snitches and get out to the yard.”

LaMar proceeded to approach Cecil Allen, a leader of the Muslim group of inmates, and ask, “If we kill the snitches, could we be let out to the yard so we don’t be a part of this?”

Allen consulted with the Muslim leadership and returned a few moments later to tell LaMar that the “orders has (sic) been granted to kill the snitches.”

LaMar and his friends, Louis Jones and Derek Cannon, then began to walk around L-Block and enlist other inmates to help them.

Eventually, the group recruited Hiawatha “Pittsburgh” Frezzell, Eric “Tiger” Scales, Derrick Mathews, Rasheem Matthews, Albert “Da-Da” Young and Gregory Curry.

The men formed what court documents refer to as a “death squad” and retrieved bats, shovels, weight bars and other objects to use as weapons.

One inmate, Timothy Grinnell, operated a console that controlled the cell doors while LaMar and his group systematically entered various cells to massacre the other inmates.

The men acted on the orders of the Muslim inmates, killing only those who were considered snitches and leaving those who were under the group’s protection.

Four inmates died that day, one of whom was William Svette, an elderly man who used a walker to move around. He was beaten to death with baseball bats and a shovel.

When LaMar and his men finished their rampage, they gathered in the recreation yard and discussed what had happened.

During this time, LaMar saw inmate Dennis Weaver and reportedly said, “I wish Weaver was in there. I’d have killed him too.”

Early the following morning, law enforcement surrounded the approximately 300 inmates gathered in the recreation yard and herded them to a gymnasium on the SOCF grounds where inmates were handcuffed and taken to various cells around the prison.

LaMar ended up in a cell with nine other inmates, including Weaver.

The next day, tensions began to rise and LaMar began to harass Weaver and accuse him of being a snitch.

Later that day, LaMar announced to his cellmates, “I want Mr. Weaver dead. I want that snitch dead right now.”

LaMar ordered another inmate to kill Weaver and handed him some string. Weaver died after inmates strangled him, stuffed pieces of toilet paper and plastic down his throat and beat him.

The body was moved to a corner of the cell and LaMar instructed his cellmates to make it look like a hanging.

A jury convicted LaMar on a total of nine counts of aggravated murder.

For each of the first day’s four killings, LaMar was convicted under two different theories: prior calculation and design and felony murder.

The jurors also convicted him on four aggravating circumstances attached to each of those eight counts of murder: murder in prison, prior murder record, mass murder, and kidnapping.

For the murder of Weaver, LaMar was convicted on one count of aggravated murder with prior calculation and design along with three aggravating factors.

The trial court imposed four death sentences and one life sentence and LaMar has been unsuccessfully seeking relief since his first appeal in 1998.

In this most recent appeal, LaMar first challenged the state’s suppression of favorable evidence via a Brady claim.

But the court of appeals found no merit to his argument: “LaMar’s Brady claim fails because even if favorable evidence was suppressed, LaMar was not prejudiced.”

The appellate panel noted that it was LaMar who came up with the idea to form a death squad and kill the snitches and LaMar who led that death squad.

The court reviewed all of the evidence and the trial testimony before concluding that the evidence against LaMar was overwhelming.

“Adding this evidence to LaMar’s Brady claim and considering that evidence together, there is still no reasonable probability of a different outcome at trial,” Rogers wrote.

LaMar also argued that Weaver’s murder should have been severed from the other charges and the fact that it was not violated his right to due process. Again, the court of appeals disputed this claim.

“LaMar has not identified which evidence admitted at the joint trial would have been inadmissible in a hypothetical separate trial on the Weaver count,” Rogers wrote. “Nor has he explained how that inadmissible evidence was so unfairly prejudicial as to violate due process. Accordingly, his claim fails.”

LaMar went on to argue that the state produced insufficient evidence of kidnapping aggravators and that the prosecutor committed misconduct during the penalty phase of his trial.

His arguments failed and the court of appeals concluded by affirming the judgment of the district court and, therefore, LaMar’s death sentences. His execution date has not been scheduled.

Judges Eric Clay and Raymond Kethledge joined Rogers to form the majority.

The case is cited LaMar v. Houk, case Nos. 11-3131/3153.

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