CLAYTON KILLER DESERVES DEATH, PROSECUTORS SAY

Warren County COLUMBUS — prosecutors have urged the Ohio Supreme Court not to reconsider the death penalty ordered and scheduled for Austin Myers, 23, of Clayton.

Myers is one of the youngest people on the state’s Death Row.

In May, the court affirmed the death penalty for Myers for the stabbing death of childhood friend Justin Back at his home outside Waynesville in January 2014.

“A motion for reconsideration ‘shall not constitute a re-argument of the case,’” said the prosecutors’ motion filed last week. “Myers’ motion does just that.”

At the time, Myers was the young- est on Ohio’s Death Row.

He is still apparently the second youngest 3½ years after being sentenced for the murder of Back, 18, of Wayne Twp.

Myers was sentenced to death Oct. 16, 2014, for Back’s murder during a robbery.

Another Clayton man, Timothy

Mosley, 23, actually stabbed Back to death, but he was sentenced to life in prison without parole in exchange for his testimony.

During a two-week trial, prosecutors showed Myers planned the robbery and murder, even buying chemicals to use in decomposing the body dumped in Preble County.

In response to the highcourt ruling, lawyers for Myers motioned for the court to overturn the conviction and call a new trial “or in the alternative that his sentence be modified to life without parole.”

Last week, County Prosecutor David Fornshell and Assistant County Prosecutor Kirsten Brandt said the court had no reason to reconsider its ruling.

“In fact, all of Myers’ arguments in his motion for reconsideration are mere resubmissions of arguments that were made in the merit and reply briefs,” they argued.

In affirming Myers’ death penalty, the court also scheduled Myers’ execution for July 20, 2022. His lawyers could still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court or appeal to the Ohio governor to set aside the execution.