Prisoner’s courthouse suicide changes security rules

CRIME & THE COURTS

YOUNGSTOWN — Judge Maureen Sweeney has ruled that a defendant who faces death penalty charges in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court must be shackled on his way to and from her courtroom.

Lance Hundley, who is charged in the November 2015 murder of a woman, can have his restraints off in the courtroom but not in the halls of the courthouse.

The order only pertains to the Hundley case when he is wearing civilian clothes and no other case on her docket.

The order does not mention the suicide Monday of Robert Seman, who leaped to his death following a hearing in Sweeney’s courtroom in his death penalty case. He was wearing civilian clothes but not handcuffed or shackled at the time he jumped.

In the Seman case, the judge had ordered that he be allowed to wear civilian clothing in the courtroom and “any time he was to appear in court or before the general public, he was not to appear to be in custody,” whether for pre-trial hearings or the trial, Sheriff Jerry Greene said.

The purpose of the order was to avoid tainting a jury or public opinion and it applied in court and in the public areas of the courthouse, the sheriff said.

Seman, who killed himself the day before his trial, was accused of raping a 10-year-old girl and setting a fire that killed her and two grandparents shortly before the rape trial.

In a transcript of a pretrial hearing in Hundley’s case Wednesday, Sweeney asked Hundley if he understood why the change in policy was taking place.

“Oh, yes, under the circumstances that happened to Mr. Seman,” Hundley said, according to the transcript.

Greene, whose deputies provide courthouse security, applauded the judge’s order.

“Any time that we can increase the security and are able to keep an inmate more secure when we’re transporting him, that’s a good thing,” the sheriff said.

In high profile cases such as death penalty cases, defense attorneys routinely file motions asking that their defendants be allowed to wear civilian clothes and not be visibly restrained before jurors and the order is usually granted.

Hundley, 47, could face the death penalty if he’s convicted in the Nov. 6, 2015, slaying of Erika Huff, 41, in her home on Youngstown’s South Side.

Hundley is accused of beating Huff to death, beating her mother and setting the house on fire.

He is charged with aggravated murder with a death-penalty specification, attempted murder, felonious assault and aggravated arson. His trial is set for Sept. 8 but there are several pretrial hearings on the docket before the trial date.