Expert: Pervert, killer were inapt cellmates

Expert: Pervert, killer were inapt cellmates
BY JANICE MORSE JMORSE@ENQUIRER.COM

LEBANON - Prison officials helped set the stage for murder by housing Timothy Hancock, a convicted killer who hated sex offenders, in a cell with child rapist Jason Wagner, an expert witness told a Warren County jury Thursday.
In the first Ohio case of its kind, the jury will consider whether to reinstate a previous jury's recommendation of a death sentence for Hancock. The 37-year-old Allen County man was granted a new "penalty phase," but not a new trial, after a series of appeals of his 2001 conviction and death sentence in Wagner's strangulation.
The killing happened in 2000 at Warren Correctional Institution, a state-run prison in Turtlecreek Township.

Testimony and closing arguments could wrap up Monday, followed by jury deliberations. The jury will be asked to choose among four sentences: death, life with no parole, life with possibility of parole after 30 years and life with possibility of parole after 25 years. Hancock is serving a life sentence for the 1989 robbery and slaying of an elderly woman in Allen County.
Although Warren County prosecutors argue that the heinousness of the slaying and other factors call for the death penalty, lawyers from the Ohio Public Defender's Office are presenting evidence attempting to persuade the jury to spare Hancock's life.
Testifying for the defense, Steve J. Martin, a Texas corrections consultant, told the jury that Warren Correctional Institution officials violated state and local policies when they failed to properly collect and assess information about the character of Hancock and Wagner before putting them together in 2000.
There were factors "compelling that these two particular inmates be housed in different cells," Martin said.
As a convicted child rapist, Wagner was despised by other inmates, Martin said. Wagner also had a history of mental illness and mild mental retardation, and openly talked about his crime, making him more vulnerable to attack. Records describe him as small in stature and weak, Martin said.
"In his case, any one of those factors could have been ... enough to keep him by himself," Martin said.
Hancock had a documented chronic history of mental illnesses, violence, and dislike of sex offenders. He also objected to sharing a cell with Wagner, Martin said.
Because of both inmates' histories, "There was a failure to manage what is an obvious and known risk. ... them coming together in a cell," Martin said.
Josh Engel, Warren County assistant prosecutor, attacked Martin's credibility, noting he lacked knowledge of Ohio prison statistics that would have a bearing on how often inmates are put into cells in pairs.