Jurors to hear that serial killer Anthony Kirkland's victims were killed then burned

Jurors who will decide whether to recommend a death sentence for convicted serial killer Anthony Kirkland will be told about his pattern of killing women and girls and then burning their bodies.

Attorneys for Kirkland, 49, had asked that jurors in his resentencing, which is scheduled to begin next month in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, hear only about the two victims who were part of his 2010 trial.

Before the trial began, he pleaded guilty in the deaths of two women, in 2006 and 2008. Then at trial, a jury convicted him of killing 14-year-old Casonya Crawford in 2006 and 13-year-old Esme Kenney in 2009.

On Thursday, Kirkland’s attorneys argued that he only faced the death penalty for killing the teens.

But Judge Patrick Dinkelacker ruled that the killings were “part of the same course of conduct.” He said jurors will hear details about all four.

Kirkland was arrested on March 7, 2009, the same day he raped and strangled Esme, who had gone jogging around the Winton Road reservoir. Parts of her body were severely burned.

Kirkland is serving two life sentences at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. He was sentenced to death in 2010, but last year the Ohio Supreme Court ordered a new mitigation and sentencing hearing. It's set to begin Nov. 13.