Coonrod to be tried in Pickaway County

Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss has ordered that the second trial for Wesley Coonrod be moved to Pickaway County. 

During a hearing held Nov. 5 in Highland County Common Pleas Court, defense attorney William Mooney asked that the court consider the venue change, saying that the amount of media attention the first trial received would make it difficult to seat a jury and difficult for Coonrod to have a fair second trial.

Mooney had made a similar motion prior to the first trial, which the court denied. 

In October, Coonrod was found guilty of two counts of felony endangering children. He had faced aggravated murder charges with death penalty specifications stemming from a March fire in his apartment on Lafayette Street in Greenfield, during which his sons Thomas, 4, and Stephen, 3, were killed. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the aggravated murder charges, two charges of murder with lesser charges of manslaughter and reckless homicide, and aggravated arson. The state will not seek to retry him on the aggravated murder charges, so he is no longer facing the death penalty. 

"We have discussed with Wes, Mr. (defense attorney, Jerry) McHenry, and the family, and we asked the court to change the venue for the second trial," Mooney said in court Friday. 

Highland County Prosecutor Jim Grandey said that he felt the court should at least attempt to seat a jury in Highland County in January, when the second trial is scheduled to begin. 

Mooney argued that when the proceedings begin Jan. 3, it will have been less than 90 days since the first trial and that it would be difficult to seat a jury that was not aware of Coonrod's convictions on the endangering children charges. Additionally, Mooney said that for the sake of "judicial efficiency" the trial should be moved, so that time and funds are not wasted if a local jury cannot be seated.

Coss said that the matter of a venue change is something he had been pondering since the end of the first trial. 

"While I think we could get a jury that will say they could possibly set aside the publicity, the other issue would be how difficult would it be to find ... 15 people who don't know the defendant has been convicted previously," Coss said. 

The court previously seated 12 jurors and six alternates. Coss said that he will most likely seat 12 jurors and three alternates, since it is not a capital case. 

"Because of my understanding from the discussions, the questions we had with the jury as well as counsel discussions with previous jurors, it appeared to be it was 11-1 to convict on involuntary manslaughter, which would be based on the predicate of the defendant having been convicted of the child endangering, as alleged in counts six and seven," Coss said. "It is the court's position that the outcome of those previous counts not be disclosed to the jury, that the state still has to prove the elements of the greater offense, including those elements all over again. Therefore, I think that would have a real impact."

Coss said that the size of Highland County would make it difficult to seat a jury again. He noted that larger counties can try cases multiple times, and brought up the Ryan Widmer murder trial in Warren County. Widmer was convicted in the murder of his wife, but it was overturned due to juror misconduct, and jurors in the second trial were unable to reach verdicts. A third trial is scheduled to begin in January. Coss said that Warren County is considerably larger than Highland County, and only about 22,000 people are in Highland County's jury pool.

In making the determination of where to move the trial, Coss said that he wanted it to stay in Ohio's Fourth Appellate District. As Coss has elected to not sentence Coonrod on the child endangering charges until after the remaining counts are taken care of through a second trial or other means, he said he did not want there to be a situation in which there are two separate appeals in two separate districts. 

Coss ordered the trial be moved to Pickaway County, approximately 50 miles from Hillsboro, where Circleville is the county seat. Coss said the judge there believes a jury could be seated in a day. 

All filings will be made with the Highland County Clerk of Courts office until Dec. 3, when they will be made with both courts. 

Coss will remain the judge in the trial, and will utilize bailiff Dan Music in the second trial as well. 

A final pretrial hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 21 at 2:30 p.m.

Additionally, Coonrod had requested that a new counsel be appointed for his second trial. Coss had ordered Mt. Orab attorney Michael Kelley to serve, along with one of Coonrod's existing counsel. 

On Friday, Coonrod said that he wished to keep both Mooney and McHenry. Coss said that this had been the second time he asked for a change of attorneys and wanted to know what had changed his mind. Coonrod told the court he had spoken with others, and listened to comments Coss had made to him during a chambers hearing. 

"I talked with both of them," Coonrod said. "I am satisfied with them. They done an excellent job on the first trial. And I feel like I can get a fair trial with these two. There's an old saying my dad used to say: If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

The court vacated its appointment of Kelley.