Woman gets life in boyfriend’s death, nearly killing another
Danielle J. Ennis was free on bond after being charged last year with the murder of a boyfriend near New Albany when she was arrested three months ago for stabbing another boyfriend in the neck on the Northeast Side.
The second arrest, for attempted murder, landed her back in the Franklin County jail with her bond revoked.
Now she’s headed to prison for life, with no chance of parole for at least 23 years.
Ennis, 32, pleaded guilty last week to murder for the Feb. 23, 2020, shooting death of 56-year-old John F. Mazara and felonious assault for the July 26 stabbing of 42-year-old Earl E. Williams.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Mark Serrott sentenced her to a mandatory 15 years to life for murder, plus eight years for felonious assault, which prosecution and defense attorneys had recommended as part of a plea agreement.
Ennis declined to make a statement prior to sentencing.
Her defense attorney, Brian Joslyn, called it one of the most-unusual cases of his career, largely because there was no apparent motive for either crime. Evaluations by two separate psychologists found that she was competent to stand trial.
“I don’t agree with those reports, but there’s no way to contest them,” Joslyn said.
To further complicate matters, Ennis is pregnant. Joslyn said her prenatal care in the county jail was so deficient that he needed to resolve her case quickly to get her to the Ohio prison for women in Marysville, which is equipped to deal with pregnant inmates.
In the murder case, Ennis shot Mazara in the head while he slept in bed at an apartment in the 3800 block of Gadwall Road, north of Morse Road and just west of New Albany.
She initially told Columbus police that she found him that way, but eventually said he wanted her to kill him.
Assistant Prosecutor Erik Spitzer told the judge that Ennis insisted to detectives that her boyfriend gave her “a look” that communicated his desire to die.
Her bail was set March 6, 2020, at $500,000, which she posted through a bail-bond agency the same day, court records show.
Joslyn called the second crime – about a year and a half later and involving another boyfriend – as baffling as the first.
Ennis was giving Williams a backrub as he lay on the living room floor of his home when she suddenly plunged a knife into his neck, according to police.
Williams managed to flee the home in the 1500 block of Kemper Road, just south of 17th Avenue, and seek help.
According to an affidavit filed by a responding officer, Williams went to a neighbor’s house and asked her to call the police. The neighbor told officers that Williams was bleeding profusely and saying, ‘She stabbed me.’”
Neither crime was preceded by any argument or ongoing dispute that would lead to such violence, Joslyn said.
After her arrest for the murder, Joslyn said, Ennis “didn’t understand the implications” of what she had done. “It led me to believe she was insane.”
In late August, following her second arrest, he filed a motion with the court asking the judge to consider releasing her on bond again. He attached a letter from Ennis’ obstetrician, who expressed concerns the Ennis had lost weight while incarcerated and wasn’t receiving a healthy, prenatal diet or necessary exercise in the jail.
Judge Serrott didn’t restore her bond but on Sept. 13 issued an order that Ennis receive “an appropriate diet” and that an ultrasound be performed “if possible.” Joslyn said the procedure was not provided in the month leading up to her plea and sentencing.
Ennis listed her address in court records as a condo on Nottinghill Trail Drive, just north of Canal Winchester. jfutty@dispatch.com @johnfutty