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Executions set for two, one from Preble County

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11:55 AM Friday, December 16, 2011

By Tom Beyerlein

Staff Writer

The Ohio Supreme Court today set execution dates for two convicted killers, including one from Preble County, bringing to 14 the number of Ohio death row inmates with firm execution dates.

Ronald Phillips of Summit County, who raped and murdered his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in 1993, is to die by lethal injection on Nov. 14, 2013. Dennis McGuire, who raped, choked and stabbed a pregnant woman in 1989, has a Jan. 16, 2014, execution date. McGuire, 51, is the only death row inmate from Preble County.

The Death Penalty Information Center of Washington, D.C., this week reported that Ohio was third in the nation for executions this year, with five, trailing only Texas, with 13, and Alabama, with six. Ohio would have ranked second, as it did in 2010, if not for a six-month hiatus in the death penalty spurred by a court ruling.

Ohio is the only state with executions set for 2013 and 2014, as a steady stream of capital cases stemming from murders committed in the 1980s and 1990s run out of appeals.

In addition to the 14 dates now set, the Supreme Court has been asked by county prosecutors to set dates for Melvin Bonnell of Cuyahoga County and Lawrence Landrum of Ross County.

On Feb. 11, 1989, the day after his 29th birthday, McGuire met 22-year-old Joy Stewart while doing some work at her friend’s home. Later that day, he raped and killed her in a wooded area near West Alexandria, a jury found. McGuire, in jail on an unrelated kidnapping charge, told police he knew who killed Stewart. But McGuire knew facts about the murder that weren’t made public, police said, and DNA testing eliminated the man he accused of the murder, but didn’t eliminate him.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2264 or tbeyerlein@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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