Tryna Middleton was a 14-year-old, short and slightly built girl. All accounts indicated that she was an above-average ninth-grade student at Shaw High School in East Cleveland. On Sept. 21, 1984, Tryna was returning back to her home after a Friday night football game, along with two girlfriends, when they all noticed a car following them with its headlights off. Tryna and her friends, sensing something wasn’t right, decided to change their direction and chose another street to get back to their homes.
Unfortunately, the attacker must have been familiar with the neighborhood, as he guessed their detour and was waiting for them around the next corner. As they hurriedly walked by the car, the attacker jumped out from behind and tried to grab all three of them. Two girls escaped but Tryna was grabbed by the attacker and thrown into the car which sped away.
Tryna’s body was found two hours later in a nearby parking lot. She had been repeatedly raped and brutally stabbed seven times with a sharp object which had actually ripped her heart muscle apart. ...
Romell Broom, who was convicted of the killing of Tryna Middleton, is now 53 years old. At the time of the murder, he was 28. Broom has a criminal record dating to when he was 13. ... He served 8½ years of a seven- to 25-year rape sentence and was paroled just four months before Tryna was killed.
... The DNA evidence obtained from the semen left on Tryna was matched so closely, that there exists only an one in 2.3 million chance that Broom was not the attacker. ...
Poor Romell Broom. He got stuck 18 times with a needle. Cruel and unusual punishment, not by a long shot. Although as an option, we could always bring back the electric chair.
William E. Quinn
Trenton