Man Convicted In '92 Killing Spree Executed

A man who took part in a 1992 Christmas holiday killing spree that left six people dead and twowounded was executed Tuesday, the state's second execution in less than two weeks.
     
Marvallous Keene, 36, chose not to file a late appeal over his death sentence for a series ofslayings that included an 18-year-old mother gunned down at a pay phone.
     
He died by lethal injection at 10:36 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility inLucasville - seven days after Ohio's last execution. It was the fastest turnaround since the stateexecuted two inmates in six days in 2004.
     
Keene and three accomplices went on a three-day murder and robbery rampage in Dayton thatbegan on Christmas Eve 1992. He was convicted in five of the murders.
     
Victims included Sarah Abraham, 38, a convenience store clerk shot in the head after handingover $30 from a cash register, and Marvin Washington and Wendy Cottrill, two teenage acquaintanceswho Keene feared would tell police about his crimes.
     
Cottrill's mother, Donna Cottrill, stood when Keene entered the death chamber, but he didn'tacknowledge her or look directly at anyone as he lay on the gurney.
     
When the prison warden asked Keene if he wanted to make a final statement, Keene replied,"No, I have no words."
     
He stared at the ceiling, then closed his eyes. His chest slightly heaved as the drugs wereadministered.
     
Seven members of the victims' families who witnessed the execution declined to speak toreporters afterward, as did Keene's attorneys.
     
At a June 17 clemency hearing, Keene directed his attorneys not to present evidence on hisbehalf, saying he didn't want to cause additional pain to his family or to the victims' families.
     
Gov. Ted Strickland last week denied clemency for Keene, who didn't request it.
    
Defense attorneys have said Keene, who was 19 at the time of the slayings, was despondentover the death of his brother, who was shot and killed a year earlier. At his trial, Keene alsotold a three-judge panel that a falling out with his father contributed to his troubled emotionalstate.
     
Prosecutors described Keene as the ringleader of a group that called itself the DowntownPosse. The killings began with 34-year-old Joseph Wilkerson.
     
Keene and his accomplices arrived at Wilkerson's home under the pretext of wanting toparticipate in an orgy, prosecutors said. They tied Wilkerson to his bed and ransacked the house,and when Keene found a .32-caliber handgun in the garage, he returned to the bedroom and shotWilkerson twice.
     
Later Christmas Eve, Keene and accomplice DeMarcus Smith approached 18-year-old DanitaGullette at a pay phone, took her jacket and shoes and fatally shot the woman, prosecutors said.Gullette was the mother of a 2-year-old girl.
     
Washington, 18, and Cottrill, 16, were acquaintances who sometimes stayed at Keene'sapartment and observed Keene returning with stolen items, prosecutors said. They were shot andkilled behind a gravel pit.
     
Keene's accomplices are serving life sentences.
     
Ohio has put 31 men to death since it reinstated the death penalty in 1999. John Fautenberry,45, a former Oregon truck driver who went on a multistate killing spree in the early 1990s, wasexecuted last week.