COLUMBUS — An attorney for convicted murderer James D. Worley argued before the Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday that the jury in his Fulton County trial was so tainted, a fair trial in the 2016 murder of Sierah Joughin was impossible.
Columbus attorney Andrew Avellano argued that the rural county is so close-knit that potential jurors knew the Joughin family, knew Worley, and were well aware of the murder committed in their midst. He also pointed to one of the potential jurors, while in the other pool members’ presence, mentioned a similar crime Worley had committed in neighboring Lucas County nearly three decades earlier.
“The victim in the 1990 abduction [is] the last witness in this case,” Mr. Avellano told the high court during arguments made remotely as a coronavirus precaution.
“She was a member of this community, a member of the community that had been traumatized, and one of the people that the other jurors would have known,” he said. “She was one of them. She was coming forward to say, 'This man abducted me.' What is this jury supposed to take from that?”
When questioned by a justice, Mr. Avellano said that while the prior victim was from Whitehouse, the crime occurred in roughly the same community. The prior victim no longer lives in Ohio.
Ms. Joughin, 20, of Metamora, a student at the University of Toledo, disappeared on the night of July 19, 2016 while bicycling home along County Road 6. Her handcuffed body was later found in a cornfield. She'd been asphyxiated.
Items belonging to Worley were found at the suspected abduction scene, Ms. Joughin's blood was found on his lost motorcycle helmet, and her DNA was found on duct tape and an air mattress in a barn on Worley's farm.
Worley, 61, formerly of Delta, is currently on death row at Chillicothe Correctional Institution.
Fulton County Prosecuting Attorney Scott Haselman told the court that the final jurors were individually interviewed by the court before being seated.
“Almost every jury at the end said something to the effect that nothing that they've previously heard about the case would impact their ability to render a fair verdict and that they would decide the case based solely on the evidence presented in the courtroom,” he said.
He pointed to similarities between Ms. Joughin's murder and the 1990 attempted kidnapping the jury heard about during the trial. The survivor told the jury she'd been forced off of her bicycle by Worley's pickup truck, that he threatened her with a screwdriver to force her into the truck, and that he attempted to handcuff her. She escaped by flagging down a passing motorcyclist. Worley served two years in prison.
“These are daytime attacks,” Ms. Haselman said. “I think the most idiosyncratic nature of the similarities are the use of the screwdriver.”
He noted Worley admitted to police he'd lost fuses, sunglasses, his motorcycle helmet, and a screwdriver that day. While the first three items were found nearby, the screwdriver was found across the street in the cornfield where there were signs of a struggle and blood linked to Ms. Joughin.
He said Worley had “kidnapping kits” in his other vehicles that included pre-looped zip ties, ski masks, pepper spray, rope, and duct tape. Handcuffs were found in a tool chest.
Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor questioned Mr. Avellano's argument that introducing the prior case had tainted the jury.
“You just said that the state had a significant amount of evidence that linked your client to being the perpetrator, undeniable or indisputable evidence ... a very solid case against him,” she said. “Where's the prejudice?'
Mr. Avellano said, “The prejudice is human nature to assume that he acted in conformity with what he did 26 years earlier, that this is a guy who abducts women by the roadside.”
The court did not immediately rule.
First Published January 12, 2021, 5:21 p.m.
