Craiglist killer and sledgehammer slayings: Highlights from Sherri Bevan Walsh's tenure

Sherri Bevan Walsh, Summit County's longest-serving prosecutor, is retiring next month.

First elected in 2000, Walsh has overseen numerous high-profile cases during her tenure.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Douglas Prade

The former Akron police captain was convicted in the 1997 shooting death of his former wife, Dr. Margo Prade, 41, inside her van in the parking lot of her Wooster Avenue medical office. During a 21-year odyssey through the legal system, Prade was convicted, released and then returned to prison, where he remains today.

Denny Ross

The Springfield Township man was convicted of murder in the 1999 strangling of Hannah Hill, 18, of Akron. Her body was found in the trunk of a car on Caine Avenue. Ross’ first murder trial ended in a mistrial in 2000. He was convicted in a new trial 13 years later at age 33 and sentenced to life in prison in 2012.

John Zaffino

The Chippewa Township man was convicted in the execution-style shooting of Jeff Zack at an Akron gas station in 2001. A black-clad motorcyclist drove up and shot Zack in the head as he sat in a vehicle on Home Avenue. Socialite Cynthia George was convicted but later cleared of hiring Zaffino, her boyfriend, to kill Zack, her former boyfriend. Zaffino, 40, was convicted of aggravated murder in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison.

Alice Jenkins and Mary Rowles

The Akron women pleaded guilty in 2003 to dozens of charges for locking Rowles’ five sons in a closet for weeks at a time, forcing them to eat human and animal feces and other extreme acts of abuse and neglect. Jenkins, 27, and Rowles, 30, were sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2004.

Christopher E. Butts

Christopher E. Butts, 24, of Columbus, who raped three women near the University of Akron and a fourth on North Hill during a four-month wave of terror in Akron, was sentenced to 94 years in prison in 2008.

Ashford L. Thompson

The Twinsburg man was convicted of aggravated murder in the fatal shooting of Twinsburg Police Officer Josh Miktarian, 33, an 11-year veteran of the force, during a routine traffic stop on July 13, 2008. Thompson, 25, was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to death.

Richard Beasley

The Akron man was convicted of aggravated murder for killing three men in 2011 after posting bogus job offers on Craigslist to rob and kill them. Beasley, 60, received the death penalty. His young apprentice, Brogan Rafferty, 16, of Stow, was sentenced to life in prison.

Dawud Spaulding

The Akron man was convicted of killing the mother of his children and her boyfriend and leaving a 24-year-old man paralyzed. Erica Singleton, 28, and Ernest “Ernie” Thomas, 31, were shot to death in 2011 in a home on Grant Street in Akron. Spaulding, 30, was sentenced to death in 2013.

Shawn Ford Jr.

The Akron man was convicted in the 2013 sledgehammer slayings of Jeffrey and Margaret “Peggy” Schobert, the parents of his girlfriend, in their home on Rex Lake Drive in New Franklin. Ford, 20, was sentenced to death in 2015.

Derrick A. Brantley and Deshanon J. Haywood

The Akron men were convicted in a quadruple murder during an aggravated burglary on April 18, 2013, in the basement of a Kimlyn Circle town house near Chapel Hill. The victims, all shot in the head, were Ronald Roberts, 24, Kem Reshad Delaney, 23, Maria Nash, 19, and Kiana Welch, 19. Brantley and Haywood, both 22, were sentenced to life in prison on charges of aggravated murder.

Eric Hendon

The Akron man was convicted in a triple murder on New Year’s Eve 2013 at a home on Seventh Street Northeast in Barberton.  Slain during the robbery were John Kohler, 42; his son, David Carpenter-Kohler, 14; and David’s sister, Ashley Carpenter, 18. Hendon also was charged with the attempted murder of Kohler’s girlfriend. Hendon, 33, was sentenced in 2016 to life without the possibility of parole.

Stanley Ford

The Akron man was convicted of 22 counts of aggravated murder in September 2021 for starting two fatal fires about a year apart. Lindell Lewis and his girlfriend, Gloria Hart, died in the first fire in April 2016, while one man escaped. Dennis Huggins, Angela Boggs and five of their children — ages 1 to 14 — died in the second fire in May 2017. Ford, 62, was sentenced to nine consecutive life sentences.

Shawn Allen

The Canton man was convicted of aggravated murder for running a car over an Akron father who was pushing his daughter in a stroller on July 21, 2020, on Crouse Street in Akron. Horace Lee, 43, and Azariah Tucker, 22 months, died from their injuries. Allen, 37, was sentenced to 63 years to life in the hit-and-run murders.

Chad Cobb and Erica Stefanko

The Rittman couple were charged in the June 2012 slaying of Cobb’s former girlfriend Ashley Biggs of Jackson Township. Police said Stefanko made a fake pizza call that lured Biggs, a Domino’s driver, to a New Franklin business where Cobb beat and strangled her. Cobb, 31, pleaded guilty in 2013 and was sentenced to life in prison. Stefanko was convicted of aggravated murder in 2020 but her conviction was thrown out when an appellate court ruled Cobb shouldn't have been permitted to testify via video. She is now being tried for the second time in the case.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: High-profile cases during Summit Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh era