Handyman gets life sentence formurder of Ohio landlady
‘I apologize to everybody, but I did not do that,’ he said.
Charles J. COLUMBUS — Greene whimpered, cried and proclaimed his innocence Monday as he was sentenced to life in prison for themurder of an elderly landlady whose body was found stuffed in a German Village wishing well.
“There’s no DNA or evidence or nothing of me killing this lady,” he told Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt, his voice quavering. “I apologize to everybody, but I did not do that.”
In January, a juryconvicted Greene, 54, ofmurder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping in the death of 81-yearold Alyce Seff, for whom he sometimesworkedasahandymanat her rental properties.
Beatty Blunt imposed the mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years for the murder. She imposed 10 years each for the aggravated robbery and kidnapping convictions, but said that those years would run concurrent with the murder sentence.
Assistant Prosecutor NancyMoore had asked the judge for maximum, consecutivesentences, whichwould have totaled 35 years to life.
“The facts in this case are horrendous,” said Moore, who told the judge that Greene has a previous robbery conviction involving an 82-year-old female victim.
“He has ahistory of victimizing olderwomen,” she said.
Seff, who was known to collect rents fromtenants in cash and carry a large wad of it in her shirt, was found upside down in a decorative well behind one of her properties in the 800 block of South High Street on July 9, 2008. Investigators determined that she had been bound with duct tape and strangled.
No physical evidence linked Greene to the crime scene, but circumstantial evidence was persuasive enough for the jury.
The evidence established thatGreenewas using the victim’s cellphone shortly after she was last seen alive, and that he gave away her credit cards. HisDNAwas found in her stolen car. Awoman testified that Greene had asked her to rob Seff more than a week before her death.
Defense attorney Frederick Benton argued at trial that possession of the phone and credit cards was not proof that Greene committed themurder. He revived that argument after the verdict, delaying the sentencing by filing a motion that asked the judge to overturn the jury’s decision.
Beatty Blunt denied that motion at the beginning of Monday’s hearing.
Greene testified at the trial that another man who worked for Seff gave him the phone and credit cards, and said he had no idea that they belonged to Seff. He said he never drove Seff’s car, but that his DNA likely was on the steeringwheel fromgetting tools out of the vehicle.
He turned around several times during the sentencing hearing to apologize and plead his case to two people in court representing Seff — a friend and a niece.
“Wouldn’t you think some bloodwould be in her car?” he asked them. “Ain’t no blood in the car. My DNA was in the car way before Miss Alyce was dead.”
When the judge asked Greene if he understood the sentence, he wept as he replied, “I don’t understandnoneof it. Fifteenyears for something I didn’t do?”
“Mr. Greene, I understand that you maintain your innocence,” Beatty Blunt said. “However, a jury didfindyou guilty ofmurder, which carries a mandatory sentence of 15 years to life.”
“Oh, my God,” he said, sobbing.