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State executes hit man

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By Tom Beyerlein, Staff Writer Updated 12:49 PM Tuesday, August 18, 2009

LUCASVILLE — Trumball County hit man Jason Getsy apologized to the family of the woman he killed 14 years ago — including the man he was hired to shoot — moments before he died by lethal injection at 10:29 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18.

“Charles and Nancy Serafino and all your loved ones, for all the pain that I caused, you get my earnest prayer that God grant you peace and healing,” Getsy said, looking at murder victim Ann Serafino’s grown children, who witnessed the execution.

“I’m sorry. I know it’s little words but it’s true.

“God is so good that he gave his only son for my sins. Even lying here today I can say how blessed I am,” Getsy said.

After the execution at the Southern Ohio Correctional facility Charles Serafino, Getsy’s intended victim who was wounded in the attack said, “It’s too little too late. All I know is my mother is still in the grave and that’s the bottom line. We all have to pay for what we do in life and he paid today.”

Members of Getsy’s family declined to comment. Four of his friends and family members witnessed the execution, occasionally sobbing.

As Getsy began to loose consciousness, a witness murmured, “Sleep. Yes, sleep, sleep my friend.”

Getsy’s eyes closed, his chest heaved three times and he appeared to go to sleep. After a few minutes, his shaven head took on a purplish hue.

“It was a lot more humane than what he did to my mother,” Nancy Serafino said.

Getsy shot Ann Serafino in the head and chest on July 7, 1995 in her home in Hubbard.

Getsy, 33, became the 32nd Ohio inmate to be executed since 1999.

Getsy’s execution was the second in Ohio in less than a month. On July 21, Dayton “Christmas killer” Marvallous Keene was put to death. The state has scheduled one execution per month through February.

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote declined Monday to hear Getsy’s case.

The case has been controversial because the man who ordered the hit did not get the death penalty.

Getsy was convicted of murder for hire, a death penalty offense, in the July 7, 1995, killing of Ann Serafino of Hubbard in Trumbull County. The jury at Getsy’s trial found that Getsy was paid by John Santine to kill his business rival, Charles Serafino, and any witnesses. Getsy wounded Charles Serafino, but killed his mother in the home the Serafinos shared.

At his trial, which came after Getsy’s, Santine was convicted of aggravated murder, but not the murder-for-hire specification that would have allowed the death penalty. Two accomplices also avoided capital punishment.

Getsy admitted he shot the Serafinos, but said he was motivated not by money but by fear of Santine, who reputedly had mob connections.

The Ohio Parole Board recommended that Gov. Ted Strickland grant clemency to Getsy, in part because Santine did not get the death penalty, but Strickland on Friday announced he would not spare Getsy’s life. “Mr. Getsy and Mr. Santine had different roles in the murder,” Strickland said in a statement. “The fact that Mr. Santine was not sentenced to death is not, by itself, justification to commute Mr. Getsy’s sentence.”

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

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