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Supreme Court affirms death for hired killer of drug informant

1999-0958. State v. Yarbrough, 2002-Ohio-2126.
Shelby App. No. 17-97-03. Judgment affirmed.
Moyer, C.J., Douglas, Resnick, F.E. Sweeney, Cook and Lundberg Stratton, JJ., concur.
Pfeifer, J., concurs in judgment.
Opinion: http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/newpdf/0/2002/2002-Ohio-2126.pdf

Voting 7-0, the Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and death sentence of a man charged with carrying out the 1994 aggravated murder for hire of a drug informant used by the Shelby County sheriff.

DNA evidence linked Kevin Yarbrough to the murder of Wilma Arnett, who had been a key witness in securing the indictment of drug ringleader Calvin Davis and several other defendants. Calvin Davis was married to Arnett's sister, Jewel.

Testimony established that Davis and another drug defendant, Tyrone McGhee, each had agreed to give Yarbrough $10,000 to kill Arnett, although some of the money apparently never was paid.

Arnett died after being shot six times - three gunshot wounds to the head and three to the body. Sometime later, a local resident found a gun in a wooded area. Subsequent ballistics tests matched bullets from that gun to Arnett's wounds.

Witnesses identified the gun as belonging to Calvin Davis. Jewel Davis testified that she saw her husband give Yarbrough his gun the day before Arnett's body was found.

Justice Alice Robie Resnick wrote the Supreme Court's opinion, which overrules the 18 propositions of law Yarbrough raised in his appeal.

The court rejected Yarbrough's contention that he was merely a participant in the murder and that the men who hired him were more culpable than he.

"Calvin Davis and McGhee did not, so far as the evidence shows, 'manipulate' appellant. They simply offered him money in exchange for murder. He accepted. That is not a mitigating factor, but the essence of the murder-for-hire aggravating circumstance," Justice Resnick wrote.

Contacts
James F. Stevenson and Michael F. Boller, 937.498.2101, for the state of Ohio.

David H. Bodiker, Stephen A. Ferrell and Tracey A. Leonard, 614.466.5394, for Kevin Yarbrough.