Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 20, 2006 8:37:11 GMT -5
Plea deal lets killer avoid death penalty
Ex-Knox County resident gets 15 years
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Adam Taylor
FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
MOUNT VERNON, Ohio — A former Knox County man avoided the possibility of the death penalty by striking a plea deal with prosecutors yesterday just moments before his murder trial was to begin.
Common Pleas Judge Otho Eyster sentenced Wesley A. Park Jr. to 15 years in prison after he entered an Alford plea to charges of involuntary manslaughter with a firearm specification and tampering with evidence in the death of Jonathan Sheasby in March 2005.
An Alford plea means that Park denied guilt, but acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. At the request of prosecutors, Eyster dismissed charges of aggravated murder with a death-penalty specification, murder with a firearm specification, aggravated robbery and intimidation of a witness.
Knox County Prosecutor John Thatcher told the court that on March, 22, 2005, Park shot Sheasby in the head with a .32-caliber handgun and dumped his body in the woods in southern Knox County.
A retired science teacher discovered the body on June 11 after a dog carried Sheasby’s skull into his front yard. An autopsy later concluded that Sheasby died of multiple gunshot wounds.
Thatcher contended that Park, 32, murdered Sheasby, 30, because he was a witness to a crime Park committed in Delaware about a week earlier. Park is currently serving a prison sentence for that crime.
Sheasby’s parents, John and Sally Sheasby, asked Eyster to recommend that Park be sentenced to a maximum-security prison.
"He’s a menace to society," said Mrs. Sheasby. "I have no chance of ever having grandchildren because he ended my son’s life." adamtaylor01 @earthlink.net
Copyright © 2006, The Columbus Dispatch
Ex-Knox County resident gets 15 years
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Adam Taylor
FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
MOUNT VERNON, Ohio — A former Knox County man avoided the possibility of the death penalty by striking a plea deal with prosecutors yesterday just moments before his murder trial was to begin.
Common Pleas Judge Otho Eyster sentenced Wesley A. Park Jr. to 15 years in prison after he entered an Alford plea to charges of involuntary manslaughter with a firearm specification and tampering with evidence in the death of Jonathan Sheasby in March 2005.
An Alford plea means that Park denied guilt, but acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. At the request of prosecutors, Eyster dismissed charges of aggravated murder with a death-penalty specification, murder with a firearm specification, aggravated robbery and intimidation of a witness.
Knox County Prosecutor John Thatcher told the court that on March, 22, 2005, Park shot Sheasby in the head with a .32-caliber handgun and dumped his body in the woods in southern Knox County.
A retired science teacher discovered the body on June 11 after a dog carried Sheasby’s skull into his front yard. An autopsy later concluded that Sheasby died of multiple gunshot wounds.
Thatcher contended that Park, 32, murdered Sheasby, 30, because he was a witness to a crime Park committed in Delaware about a week earlier. Park is currently serving a prison sentence for that crime.
Sheasby’s parents, John and Sally Sheasby, asked Eyster to recommend that Park be sentenced to a maximum-security prison.
"He’s a menace to society," said Mrs. Sheasby. "I have no chance of ever having grandchildren because he ended my son’s life." adamtaylor01 @earthlink.net
Copyright © 2006, The Columbus Dispatch