NEWS

Jury spares David Bell from death row

Kimball Perry
kperry@enquirer.com
David Bell, left, with attorney Scott Rubenstein as a Hamilton County jury spared Bell from death row Friday.

As the female juror, her eyes wet with fat tears, dabbed a tissue to her nose and stepped into the jury box May 23, 2014, Will Welsh looked at Scott Rubenstein and mouthed the word "death."

The attorneys for David Bell, convicted earlier this week of murder, robbery, burglary and weapons charges, were gravely concerned that their four weeks of work would end in the worst possible result -- a death sentence for their client.

"I was worried," Welsh said. "Now, I'm relieved."

That's because the crying juror agreed with the 11 other emotional jurors and recommended that Bell's life be spared and that he serve a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The penalty recommendation came just minutes after jurors told Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Leslie Ghiz late Friday afternoon they were deadlocked. She sent them back to deliberate. Before Assistant Prosecutors Seth Tieger and Gus Leon could walk across the street to their offices, jurors notified the courtroom they had a verdict.

After Welsh and Rubenstein spoke with jurors following their recommendation, though, they discovered death wasn't an option for this jury. Jurors told them they battled over whether to send Bell to prison for life without the possibility of parole for 30 years, or life without the possibility of parole.

"That's what the holdup was," Welsh said.

The jurors remained very emotional after the sentence, Welsh said, because the tearful juror lobbied hard for 30 years to life for Bell while others insisted anything short of life without parole was improper.

"We put them at ease," Welsh said, noting that the robbery, burglary and other convictions meant Bell likely would never have gotten out of prison even had he been sentenced to 30 years to life for the murder. "Rest assured, he's going to be in there for life," Welsh said.

For Welsh, Bell was at least the 12th client facing a potential death sentence he's helped save as a defense attorney. "It's an exhilarating feeling," Welsh said, "one you can't imagine, but it's hard getting there. Very hard getting there."

Friday's sentence saved the jurors, who have been sequestered since they convicted Bell on Wednesday, from spending Memorial Day weekend in a hotel.

The judge arranged for the jurors to meet with counselors after their verdict if they had emotional difficulties after the trial and deliberations.

Bell officially will be sentenced next week by Ghiz.

Bell, 25, showed no emotion when he escaped becoming Ohio's 140th death row inmate.

Bell's case is unusual in that it's a capital murder case involving crimes in two counties with a female accomplice. Annisha Smith, Bell's girlfriend, was in a bedroom with a Butler County man in January 2011 when Bell came into the house and stole the man's gun. That gun was used April 23, 2011, in an East Price Hill home where Smith was in a man's bedroom -- and texting Bell about the house's layout and belongings -- when Bell came in and killed a sleeping Charles Martin in the house. He tried to kill another man but missed because the man woke up and rolled off the bed.

Smith testified against Bell. Prosecutors have given her a plea deal for her testimony. She will go to prison after a June 2 court date.

As of May 13, the last date the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections updated that information, Hamilton County had 24 inmates on death row awaiting execution. That leads all of Ohio, followed by 22 Cuyahoga County death row inmates.