J.D. Tomlinson answers criticism for seeking exonerations in 1991 Lorain murder

ELYRIA — Lorain County Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson's successor and two former Lorain police detectives assigned to the case are questioning Tomlinson's move to exonerate four men convicted of a 1991 murder in the final weeks of his elected term. A veteran assistant prosecutor and assistant Ohio attorney general, Lorain County Prosecutor-elect Tony Cillo said he doesn't understand Tomlinson's haste to act now after having four years to do something. "If you're so comfortable (that the defendants are innocent), why would you worry about someone reviewing it?" Cillo said Wednesday. He said transcripts need to be reviewed, witnesses reinterviewed, and victim's family members consulted before the case could be put before a judge. Even then, "I don't think a judge can just sign off on it. I think there has to be hearings," Cillo said. Alfred Cleveland and Lenworth Edwards are free on parole, after each serving decades behind bars for Blakely's killing. Benson Davis and John Edwards remain in prison for the crime, with parole hearings coming in the next several years. Supporters convinced of their innocence have dubbed the men "The Ohio 4," and held a rally Nov. 25 in downtown Elyria to bring attention to the case and convince Tomlinson to help exonerate them. Tomlinson announced Monday he was doing just that, asking Lorain County Common Pleas judges to grant new trials for the four men. If that were to happen, he said he would dismiss the charges against all four. "Once I dove into it, I dove in," Tomlinson said of the case. "I took a deep dive on it. I consider myself an expert on this case. It's been tireless, and if I have faith that fairness could be achieved when I left (office), I'd feel different but I don't." Tomlinson said Wednesday he was not confident Cillo "can objectively look at cases involving Jonathan Rosenbaum and Greg White," who were the assistant county prosecutors who tried the case and elected county prosecutor, respectively, when the murder occurred. He has said previously that Cillo and Rosenbaum, both political rivals, used a scandal that plagued Tomlinson's last year in office to get him bounced out in the election. 'Why now?' Tomlinson said Wednesday he spent the last year defending himself against allegations he improperly paid former girlfriend/employee Jennifer Battistelli a $100,000 employment settlement, then allegedly tried to intimidate her into dropping a harassment, discrimination and abuse complaints. Felony charges against Tomlinson and his chief of staff, James Burge, were dismissed Nov. 15 by a visiting judge in Elyria Municipal Court after Battistelli failed to appear in court to testify. "So now I had a little time, and I wanted to dedicate it to" the Blakely murder and the four defendants' innocence claims, Tomlinson said. "I've been defending myself from false accusations for a year, more than a year." A defense attorney in private practice before being elected prosecutor in 2020, Tomlinson called the evidence against the four men "not the level of evidence you should ever (use to) convict someone of these kinds of crimes, ever." According to court records, Lenworth Edwards and Davis' cases are assigned to Ewers. Ewers on Wednesday said he had no comment on the cases because he had not yet read the documents. Cleveland's case is assigned to Judge Christopher Rothgery's court. Rothgery was out of the office Wednesday and not available for comment, bailiff Rob Bennett said. John Edwards' case is assigned to Judge John Miraldi, who couldn't be reached for comment on Wednesday. Seeking new trials In a motion filed Dec. 2 in Common Pleas Court that was obtained Wednesday by The Chronicle-Telegram, Tomlinson and attorneys for all four defendants asked for new trials, for the convictions to be vacated and charges dismissed. The motion is signed by Tomlinson; Josh Dubin, executive director of the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law School in New York City; attorneys Shantya Goddard and Lauren Staley with the Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati College of Law; attorneys Joanna Sanchez and Nicholas Allen of the Ohio Public Defender's Office's Wrongful Conviction Project; and attorney Kimberly Kendall Corral. According to their account, the four men were convicted in separate trials of the Aug. 8, 1991, murder of Marsha Blakely, whose body was found that morning behind Westgate Plaza on West 21st Street in Lorain. Eight hours earlier, the body of Floyd Epps was found less than a quarter-mile away. He and Blakely had been living in the same apartment on Sunset Boulevard in Lorain. Investigators always have believed that Blakely and Epps were killed by the same suspects, but no one has ever been charged with Epps' murder. A $2,000 reward was offered, and William Avery Jr. came forward to say he had seen Blakely's murder and named Cleveland, Davis, John and Lenworth Edwards as her killers. All four men were prosecuted and convicted. Avery was a problem witness from the beginning, Tomlinson said, changing his story too many times including ahead of the first trial. He also demanded money for testimony and was jailed for it, Tomlinson said. In 2004, Avery told the FBI that he had lied at trial. In 2006, he wrote an affidavit formally recanting his testimony. "I told my mother about all this after I went to the FBI last summer," Avery wrote in his affidavit recanting his trial testimony." She told me that I was doing real good with my life and that I could not go on in a good way until I came forward and told the truth. If I don't tell the truth and get this off my chest, then my spirit can't be good with God." Warned he could get 20-30 years in prison for perjury, Avery declined to testify on Cleveland's behalf at a hearing in Rothgery's courtroom in 2008. Tomlinson's take on Avery's change of heart? "It was a cowardly move. He was looking at his own interest," despite having already signed an affidavit recanting his trial testimony. The Chronicle reported Feb. 1, 2008, that Avery told Rothgery he wanted to tell the truth, and didn't need an attorney. But after being advised of his legal rights and not being granted immunity from prosecution for his testimony, Avery invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and didn't testify. Avery then told a reporter the possibility of jail time stopped him from testifying. "Dude's innocent," he said about Cleveland. "But I don't feel I have to go to jail for 30 years." In 2012, Cleveland asked the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to rule on a habeas petition, a way for a state prisoner to ask a federal court to challenge their conviction or sentence. The appeals court ruled Cleveland had presented a "credible claim of actual innocence," and remanded the case to U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary, who ruled against Cleveland in 2014. Three of the four defendants presented alibi evidence at trial, according to the joint motion. More alibi evidence has since been developed, including testimony from a New York State probation officer and phone records that place Cleveland and Davis in New York at the time of Blakely's murder, according to Tomlinson and defense attorneys. "... there is no longer any dispute among the parties as to the credibility of Avery Jr.'s recantation, the reliability of the defendant's alibis, and the absence of any physical, forensic and/or scientific evidence implicating the defendants in this crime," the defense attorneys and Tomlinson wrote in their motion to the court. Formerly a Detroit resident, Tomlinson said he said he hadn't talked to Avery before making his decision to get the murder cases dismissed. "I don't think anyone knows where he's at," Tomlinson said. Cillo reacts Cillo said he hasn't read all the transcripts of the four murder trials, all of which took place before he became an assistant Lorain County prosecutor in 1995 and moved to the Criminal Division in 1997. He said he would look at the whole case, what the law is, whether the case meets the elements for a new trial and possible dismissal, and similar issues. "There's no new evidence I've seen," Cillo said, to back up the claims of innocence other than Avery's recantation of what he said on the stand in three of the four murder trials. Asked if he thinks the four men did the crime, Cillo said he doesn't know. He doesn't yet have access to the case files and hasn't read the transcripts of the original trials, he said. And the Blakely murder doesn't turn on DNA or scientific evidence that could prove the defendants' actual innocence, Cillo said. "Four juries said they did this and listened to the evidence independently and that's how our system works," he said. "I don't understand the rush. ... This has been reviewed by how many courts, four different juries, and in a matter of weeks, (Tomlinson says) 'Everyone else is wrong and we're right.'" Former Lorain detectives speak Former Lorain police detectives Geno Taliano and Rich Resendez, who investigated Blakely's murder, said Wednesday they believe the defendants are 100 percent guilty. "The bottom line is this: There were four separate jury trials. Each of the defendants had competent attorneys. All the testimony was the same in all four trials, which tells me each of those men were convicted not one but four times," Taliano said. Tomlinson "has chosen for some reason to discount all of that" for his own reasons, and in doing so could cost the county "millions and millions of dollars" in wrongful conviction lawsuits, Taliano said. Appeals to the federal system also failed, Resendez noted. "That's the system we live in. I believe they did it, and I don't agree with one person reviewing it and saying 'No, they didn't do it, so vacate'" the conviction, he said. "I'm in disagreement with this action." Taliano said when he learned Tomlinson was trying to overturn the convictions, he visited him in his office on Nov. 27 and spoke with the prosecutor for two hours. "My position is that the investigation provided justice for all four of (the convicted men), and more importantly for the victim Marsha Blakely and her family," Taliano said Wednesday. Avery was, as Rosenbaum described him, "a lying thug" and police and the prosecution never hid that, Taliano said. But Avery had information about the crime that corroborated information Lorain police had known weeks earlier, he said. "You know the saying, 'Conspiracies conceived in hell are rarely witnessed by angels in heaven,'" Taliano told a reporter. Rumors that other men were the killers "never bore fruit," Taliano said. As a rookie detective newly assigned to the Lorain police Detective Bureau in 1991, Resendez assisted Taliano with the investigation. Now chief of operations in Tomlinson's office, Resendez said he had no part in Tomlinson's move to get the cases dismissed. "I have not conferred with anybody," Resendez said. "I have not said a word to (Tomlinson) in regards to this." In response, Tomlinson said he asked to speak to Resendez about the case, and that Resendez declined. Resendez and Taliano both said if there was new evidence, they'd be happy to look at it. Tomlinson said Wednesday he respects Taliano and Resendez and considers them friends, but also "I respectfully disagree" with them. They committed no misconduct, but relied on a "shaky" witness, Tomlinson said. "I've had former Lorain police detectives text me and support me in what I'm doing," said Tomlinson, who declined to diclose the names of those former detectives. "This is not controversial for many people." Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.