Serial Killer Trial - Anthony Kirkland

Opening statements begin today, March 4, in the murder trial of Anthony Kirkland. He is an extremely violent murdering sex offender, that should never have been released from prison. ANOTHER example as to why anyone convicted of violent crimes, murder and rape should never, ever be released from the prison system or escape the death penalty.


As jury selection resumes Monday, Judge Charles Kubicki Jr. has ordered Kirkland to wear an electronic stun belt in court that can be activated by sheriff's deputies.

Deputies also removed a glass pane covering a table used by attorneys out of concern that Kirkland could break off some of it and stab someone.

For the same reason, Kirkland will not be allowed to have a pen or pencil during the trial. Instead, he will be given a small box of crayons for writing.


Anthony Kirkland is charged with four murders over four years (clockwise from top left):




• Esme Kenney. She was killed March 7, 2009, as she jogged around the Winton Road reservoir.
• Kimya Rolison. Her remains were found June 13, 2008. Authorities believe she was killed Dec. 22, 2006. They say she and Kirkland were inside a van and arguing when Kirkland stabbed her in the neck with a knife.
• Mary Jo Newton. Her body was found June 15, 2006. Kirkland is accused of choking her to death in a car.
• Casonya Crawford. Her body was found May 9, 2006.


Security tight for Ohio man charged in 4 slayings
Posted 2/28/2010 12:05 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print



CINCINNATI (AP) — A man accused of killing two teenage girls and two women is a danger in the courtroom, and extra security is being added for his trial, authorities said.
Anthony Kirkland, 41, has threatened to kill himself or commit some act that could force police to kill him, authorities said.

As jury selection resumes Monday, Judge Charles Kubicki Jr. has ordered Kirkland to wear an electronic stun belt in court that can be activated by sheriff's deputies.

Deputies also removed a glass pane covering a table used by attorneys out of concern that Kirkland could break off some of it and stab someone.

For the same reason, Kirkland will not be allowed to have a pen or pencil during the trial. Instead, he will be given a small box of crayons for writing.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, who is seeking the death penalty in the case, said he hopes Kirkland will give the victims' families answers about what happened.

Deters has described Kirkland as a serial killer who "deserves nothing less than execution."

Kirkland is a registered sex offender who was arrested in March 2009 and accused of strangling 13-year-old Esme Kenney and trying to burn her body. A halfway house had released Kirkland weeks earlier.

Police said they found Kirkland near Kenney's partially burned body in woods near her home.

He's pleaded not guilty in all cases, including the 2006 slayings of another Cincinnati teenager and two women. All of their bodies were burned.

Kirkland also is under extra scrutiny in jail.

He was on suicide watch at the Hamilton County Jail until Feb. 17, when he was transferred to what jail officials refer to as administrative segregation, where he is segregated from the general population and locked down in a cell for 23 hours a day, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Barnett.

Kirkland is allowed out one hour into another secured area where he can move around, get some recreation and clean up while guards keep watch, Barnett said.

In 1987, Kirkland was accused of setting a woman on fire and killing her. He pleaded guilty to reduced charges, sentenced to seven to 25 years in prison and released in 2003.

http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=cincinnati&sParam=32917579.story

Jury's first task in Anthony Kirkland trial: Visit site where Esme Kenney was killed

By Kimball Perry • kperry@enquirer.com • March 2, 2010

Jurors who will determine if accused serial killer Anthony Kirkland lives or dies are scheduled to travel to the Winton Road reservoir Wednesday before hearing the Thursday openings of the capital murder trial.




That's where the burned body of 13-year-old Esme Kenney was found. Kirkland also is accused of killing and burning the bodies of three others - Kimya Rolison, Casonya "Sharee" Crawford and Mary Jo Newton.

Death-penalty cases have two phases. The first determines guilt or innocence. If jurors find Kirkland guilty of murder that carries the death penalty, the trial then proceeds to the second phase where jurors will determine the sentence.

If all 12 jurors don't agree that Kirkland should be put to death, he can be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison without the possibility of parole or 30 years to life without the possibility of parole.

Kirkland's attorneys, Norm Aubin and Will Welsh, told potential jurors during the jury selection process that the case "will" get to the second phase, admitting they believe Kirkland will be convicted. They've repeatedly said their job is to spare Kirkland from Death Row.

That's because of the large amount of evidence against Kirkland, most of which is about eight hours of recorded conversations he had with police after his arrest a year ago. Police had said the recordings are a confession by Kirkland, 41.

Jury selection started Friday and ended Tuesday, when a jury was seated.

In addition to the four murder charges, Kirkland also is accused of three counts of gross abuse of a corpse and two counts each of attempted rape and aggravated robbery.

Kirkland already spent 16 years in prison for the 1987 killing of a woman whose body was set on fire, but jurors in this case won't hear that evidence, Common Pleas Court Judge Charles Kubicki Jr. has ruled.

http://communitypress.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20100302/NEWS010702/3030325/0/NEWS0103/Kirkland-jury-to-see-where-Esme-died

Why Was Kirkland Free?

March 10, 2009



Anthony Kirkland, the 40-year-old convicted killer and sex offender now accused of killing 13-year-old Esme Kenney over the weekend, managed to slip through just about every crack in the system. We need to remember that such cracks don't happen by themselves. They are caused by the inattention and incompetence of those operating the system.


In 1987, when Kirkland was 18, he beat his girlfriend, doused her with lighter fluid and set her on fire. Convicted of that killing, he received a 7-25 year sentence, which seems a light sentence given the grisly details of the case. He was paroled in 2003 and released from probation 13 months later. That's one big crack - 16 years for intentionally immolating someone.

Then about three months after the authorities had stopped watching him he was arrested again, charged with rape. He was acquitted in that case but in 2007 was convicted of two counts of unlawful restraint and one charge of importuning a 13-year-old girl for sex. He went back to jail for about a year before being paroled again - another crack. He was sent to live at Volunteers of America facility in Cincinnati that is a halfway house for sex offenders.

He was there on Friday Feb. 29, when he reportedly got into a fight with another resident. Here is where the cracks in the system opened into a chasm. The staff at the halfway house called police. An officer responded but because the other resident was unwilling to press charges, Kirkland was not arrested. But fighting is still against the rules of the halfway house so Kirkland was kicked out. That's right; a convicted killer and sex offender with violent tendencies was put out on the street like a stray cat.
Volunteers of America didn't notify Kirkland's parole officer until the following Monday, which is when authorities started looking for him. By the time he was found in Winton Hills on Sunday he would be accused of several more crimes, including stabbing a man on March 1, threatening the mother of his child on March 6 and killing Esme Kenney, last seen jogging near her Winton Place home on March 7. Hamilton County Coroner O'dell Owens confirmed Monday that her body also had been burned. Cincinnati Police said they now are investigating Kirkland for two unsolved homicides from 2006 in which the bodies of female victims had been burned.
Why was Kirkland out of jail? Why would a violent parole offender be turned loose instead of locked up? There are a number of agencies that need to be asking themselves those questions - the Ohio Parole Authority, Volunteers of America, Cincinnati Police. Esme Kenney deserves answers.


http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090310/EDIT01/903100323/Why-was-Kirkland-free

All dressed up for court- Attorneys Want To Keep Him Off Death Row

By Kimball Perry • kperry@enquirer.com •
February 26, 2010



All noise in a Hamilton County courtroom stopped Friday when a chink chink chink was heard.

That was the sound made by each footfall of accused serial killer Anthony Kirkland because of the ankle shackles he wore. Kirkland’s murder trial began Friday as prosecutors try to convict him of four counts of murder in the deaths of four females – whose bodied also were burned – and as prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against him.

Common Pleas Court Judge Charles Kubicki Jr. called more than 150 prospective jurors to court Friday as jury selection began. They are just some of the 600 prospective jurors called for the trial. Those in Friday were to explain why they couldn’t serve or fill out questionnaires the prosecutors and defense attorneys will study when jury selection continues next week. That process is expected to take until the middle of next week and will be followed by the presenting of evidence.

Kirkland’s attorneys, Norm Aubin and Will Welsh, have said in court they expect their client to be convicted – over several hours he told police explicit details of the four deaths that only police and the killer would know, prosecutors said – and are concentrating on trying to convince jurors to send him to prison for life instead of to Death Row.

Security was a major issue at Friday’s proceedings.

Concerns about security were so heightened that sheriff’s deputies, who provide courthouse security, searched the entire courtroom – even upending all of the spectator benches – for potential weapons. A pane of glass brought to the courtroom to cover one of the tables used by attorneys was ordered removed until after the trial after concerns were raised that Kirkland could break the glass and use a shard to stab someone.

Stabbing also was the concern that forced officials to refuse to let Kirkland – who told cops he wanted to die and was looking for ways to kill himself – have a pen or pencil during the trial. Instead, Kirkland was given a small box of crayons for writing.

Those precautions are in addition to Kirkland being fitted with handcuffs and shackles while entering and leaving the courtroom and having to wear an electronic shock belt that can be activated by a nearby deputy whose finger hovers over the shock button.

Kirkland, 41, is accused of killing Casonya “Sharee” Crawford, 14; Mary Jo Newton, 45; Kimya Rolinson, 25, and; Esme Kenney, 13 – and burning their bodies in incidents from 2006 until March 7, 2009, when he was arrested.

Kirkland already has served a 16-year prison sentence for killing and burning the body of a woman in 1987.

In 1987, when Kirkland was 18, he beat his girlfriend, doused her with lighter fluid and set her on fire. Convicted of that killing, he received a 7-25 year sentence, which seems a light sentence given the grisly details of the case. He was paroled in 2003 and released from probation 13 months later. That's one big crack - 16 years for intentionally immolating someone.

Sixteen years for viciously beating his girlfriend, lighting her on fire, and killing her? Four more people have died because the system continues to be too lenient with violent criminals.

Piper wrote:
Stabbing also was the concern that forced officials to refuse to let Kirkland – who told cops he wanted to die and was looking for ways to kill himself –

Anyone else agree that they should let him have his way?

I agree pi, give him some gasoline and a Zippo.....

pi-girl wrote:

Piper wrote:
Stabbing also was the concern that forced officials to refuse to let Kirkland – who told cops he wanted to die and was looking for ways to kill himself –

Anyone else agree that they should let him have his way?

I never have understood why authorities go to so much trouble to keep a criminal from committing suicide when they plan to go after the death penalty anyway..... I say to the criminal - GO FOR IT!!!!

pi, Piper and Snaz.....I agree with you...why pay to keep this scumbag alive...let him torch himself...gasoline and a zippo or book of matches....let the fireworks begin!!!

Accused serial killer Anthony Kirkland pleaded guilty this morning to murdering two women, while continuing to plead not guilty to killing two teen-age girls.

Kirkland pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in the Dec. 22, 2006, death of Kimya Rolison and the June 14, 2006, killing of Mary Jo Newton.

He faces a prison sentence of 32 years to two life terms on those convictions.

Kirkland continued to trial on the two homicides that carry the death penalty -- the deaths of 13-year-old Esme Kenney in March 2009 and 14-year-old Casonya "Sharee" Crawford in 2006.

Opening statements are being made this morning. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters is personally trying the case.

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20100304/NEWS0107/303040041/

Victims paid price for Anthony Kirkland's anger

Sunday March 7, 2010

It lives dormant until something happens - usually a negative interaction with a female - then it wells up, turning Anthony Kirkland into a sadistic murderer.

"I don't know how to handle a lot of stress," Kirkland told police hours after his March 7, 2009, arrest when he was charged with killing Esme Kenney, 13. "I lash out when it just gets to the point to where it is overbearing."

It was overbearing for four victims, who ran into Kirkland - literally in Esme's case - when he was unable to cope with inner demons and his smoldering anger erupted, said Hamilton County officials.

Three others, in addition to Esme, paid for that anger with their lives, Kirkland said: Mary Jo Newton, 45, Kimya Rolison, 25, and Casonya "Sharee" Crawford, 14.

The rage eased, Kirkland told Cincinnati police homicide Detective Bill Hilbert in a March 8, 2009 interview, only after he burned each body in a cleansing ritual, often staying with the smoldering bodies for hours.

"Fire purifies. That's what fire does," Kirkland told Hilbert. "In all ways, it purifies."

Kirkland is on trial for murder as prosecutors seek the death penalty. Minutes before the trial's start, Kirkland pleaded guilty to murder, gross abuse of a corpse and all other charges in connection with the murders of Newton and Rolison. He is on trial now for murder and other charges in the deaths of the two teens.

In 233 pages of statements to Hilbert after Esme's death, Kirkland told how women ruined his life, giving birth to anger that only death can douse.

"I can't control me," Kirkland said. "I can't keep happiness."

A woman he blames, Kirkland told Hilbert, is the one he killed in 1987. Kirkland said they had an intimate relationship. Authorities said he forced himself on Leola Douglas, the girlfriend of a relative. When he was rebuffed, he set her on fire, killing her. He served 16 years in prison for that.

After being freed, he met Roberta Baldwin in church. They became a couple and had a son. "All I really wanted was a family," Kirkland said. "That's all I wanted." He supported the family with jobs at a West End pickle company, a Finneytown car wash and as a knife salesman.

But Kirkland continued to prowl, driving his stepdad's gray van around Cincinnati streets looking for women, often soliciting or sharing drugs with prostitutes.

That's how he met Newton and Rolison. He once took Newton - he didn't know her last name but called her "Hail Mary" - to Baldwin's house for sex when Baldwin was out.

Newton's fatal mistake was being in Kirkland's van June 14, 2006, as it was parked in Eden Park. When Kirkland said he had no more money for drugs, he said she hit him. His anger exploded. He sat on her back and choked her to death.

"She turned around and she looked at me (while being choked) and she told me that death would probably be a good thing the way her life has been," Kirkland told Hilbert.

That killing was six weeks after police say Kirkland killed Casonya. Just out of the shower, the 14-year-old wore SpongeBob SquarePants pajamas.

In the May 4, 2006, incident, Kirkland offered her money for sex. She refused and fought him, evoking his lethal rage.

"When she got mad, I got mad," Kirkland said. "I grabbed her and she kneed me. ... When I got hold of her again, I choked her."

He dragged her body to the 1000 block of Blair Avenue in Avondale - less than a half mile from where he lived and from where he'd later dump Newton's body - and set it ablaze, he told police.

The anger abated for six months when he met Rolison, a woman he said reminded him of the woman who accused him of rape. He was acquitted but spent nine months in jail.

After having sex with Rolison, they were attacked by men Kirkland insisted were working with Rolison. Kirkland's anger bubbled. He drove her to a parking lot where he stabbed her in the jugular vein and watched her bleed to death.

"It was just a lucky shot," Kirkland said. He took her body to Cumminsville and burned it. It was found six months later.

For more than two years after that, Kirkland apparently was able to keep his rage in check. It started percolating, though, after his girlfriend kicked him out of the house. He was accused of trying to have sex with a 13-year-old girl, declared a sexual predator and was living in an Over-the-Rhine halfway house when he went March 7, 2009, to the Winton Hills reservoir. That's where he saw a 100-pound, 13-year-old jogger.

"I was so fed up," Kirkland told Hilbert. "I am at the end. I am at the end of everything."

Esme - listening to Hilary Duff on her pink iPod - bumped into him. Immediately, she apologized.

"All my anger, it just, I called it up," Kirkland said.

He asked her name. She replied Louise.

"And I told her that she was a lying bitch," Kirkland said. "Just like all the other women that have destroyed my life."

He chased her, catching her as she fell over a small, brown fence. "I gave in to the anger. I gave in to the hate," Kirkland said.

She begged for her life, he said, telling him she'd do anything if he didn't hurt her. He raped and strangled her.

Exhausted, he went to a nearby park where he ate bread, barbecue chicken and macaroni and cheese from a garbage can. Then he returned to Esme's body, putting it against a tree and burning it.

"I sit there and talked to her," Kirkland told police. "I apologized for hurting her." Then he promised to soon join her in death.

That's what prosecutors want.

They've presented evidence over two days. Kirkland's attorneys Norm Aubin and Will Welsh told jurors their client killed all four females and their only goal is save his life.

The trial resumes today - the anniversary of Esme's death - and is expected to conclude late next week. The penalty phase, where Kirkland can face life imprisonment or death, follows.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100307/NEWS01/3080320

Kirkland caused 'unimaginable horror'

By Kimball Perry • kperry@enquirer.com •
March 4, 2010

Lisa Kenney was on her hands and knees scrubbing her kitchen floor a year ago when she suddenly got a feeling that something was horribly wrong with her 13-year-old daughter, Esme.

“She sits bolt upright and she has the overwhelming feeling that something is wrong," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters told a jury that will decide if murderer Anthony Kirkland lives or dies.

Esme had gone jogging at about 3:45 p.m. on the unusually warm – it was 65 degrees – and sunny March 6. Esme was gone about 30 minutes when her mother had the frightening premonition and was so scared by it that she ran out of her house barefoot across the street to the Winton Road reservoir. That’s where Esme went jogging in her sweats and a white top over a brown, spaghetti-strap shirt.

“The sad, pathetic truth is that the little 100-pound Esme already had been dragged into the woods … and forced to endure the most unimaginable horror.”

That was some of what Deters said in his opening statement to jurors in the case against Kirkland before Common Pleas Court Judge Charles “Barry” Kubicki Jr.

Kirkland was charged with murder and other crimes in the death of four females whose bodies also were burned. He surprised many by pleading guilty to most of the charges minutes before the trial was to start Thursday.

Kirkland pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in the cases of Mary Jo Newton, 45, and Kimya Rolison, 25.

Norm Aubin, one of Kirkland’s attorneys, told jurors Kirkland killed the four people but urged jurors to continue to do their jobs.

“You must – must – put aside those emotions and live up to your oath,” Aubin told the jury of nine women and three men.

Lisa Kenney entered the woods around the reservoir looking for her daughter and got within a few hundred feet of the body of her only child, Deters said, before returning home to call police.

Six hours later, police shone a flashlight on a man sitting against a fir tree in the woods. The man called himself Anthony Palmore. It was Kirkland. He had in his pants pockets several knives, a girl’s purple watch and a pink iPod that had “Property of Esme Kenney” etched in it, police said.

Just after midnight, Kenney’s burned body was found.

Police had suspected Kirkland for some time as a prime suspect in the killings and burning of three others – Casonya “Sharee” Crawford, 14, killed May 4, 2006, as she wore her SpongeBob SquarePants pajamas; Newton, killed June 14, 2006; and Rolison, killed June 13, 2006, her body found six months later.

Deters focused on Esme’s case in his opening, he said, because Kirkland was arrested hours after it happened and Kirkland’s memory was fresh. He also chose that killing because it was the only one where an accelerant wasn’t used to try to burn the body and so a plethora of evidence had been preserved.

Kirkland told police, Deters said, that he ran into Esme at the reservoir and began beating her.

“He strikes her. He kicks her. He stomps her,” Deters said.

Kirkland dragged the teen into the woods, Deters said, where “she begs him not to hurt her. She says she will do anything for him if he doesn’t hurt her and just lets her go.”

Kirkland tried to have sex with the teen, Deters said, but Esme tried to prevent the assault by asking Kirkland, “Don’t you have any children?”

That’s when Kirkland pulled a rag from his pocket and used it to strangle her from behind, Deters said.

“The physical evidence will show he took his time killing her,” the prosecutor added.

Deters knew that, he added, because the coroner reported the dead girl’s face carried a tortured look and dirt under her nails showed how hard and deep she buried her fingers into the ground in her attempt to stave off death.

“The bottom line is that man, Anthony Kirkland, is in fact a vicious serial killer,” Deters said, noting Kirkland left a “trail of human destruction.”

The remaining charges against Kirkland involve the killings of Esme and Casonya. Kirkland, who has confessed to police to killing all four females, can’t plead guilty in those two deaths because they carry the death penalty as a possible punishment.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100304/NEWS0107/303040041

It's heartbreaking to read of someone pleading for their life, begging to live while be tortured. Then have the killer recount the victim's last words like this........

Jury hears Kirkland confessions

By Kimball Perry • kperry@enquirer.com •
March 10, 2010

Serial killer Anthony Kirkland sat across a table from Cincinnati Police homicide Det. Bill Hilbert a year ago.

Hilbert's goal was to get Kirkland to help solve three unsolved killings. Kirkland's goal was to avoid the confession.

Hilbert won. A Hamilton County jury Wednesday heard the March 9, 2009, recorded interview where Kirkland said he killed Esme Kenney, 13; Mary Jo Newton, 45; and Casonya "Sharee" Crawford, 14.

The jury will hear the rest of the recording Thursday with Kirkland confessing to killing Kimya Rolison, 25, by stabbing her in the neck June 13, 2006, and watching her bleed to death. He burned her body, dumping it in Cumminsville where it was found six months later.

The face of pure evil:



http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100310/NEWS01/3110324/1055/NEWS/Jury+hears+Kirkland+confessions

Deters: Kirkland is a monster who should die

By Kimball Perry • kperry@enquirer.com •
March 12, 2010

Anthony Kirkland should die, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters told a jury today, because he has within him an unimaginable wickedness that society must address.

“Sometimes pure evil just exists. Most people can’t get their arms around that,” Deters told a jury today, calling Kirkland a monster.

“I think over the last two weeks, the State has conclusively concluded that that’s a fact.”

Kirkland, 41, is on trial for his life, accused of aggravated murder and other charges in the deaths of Casonya “Sharee” Crawford, 14, and Esme Kenney, 13 – two of the five women authorities say he has killed.

Deters and assistant prosecutor Mark Piepmeier reviewed the evidence for the jury, asking them to find Kirkland guilty of all charges. If the jury agrees, they come back next week to the second phase of the trial where they will decide his punishment – life in prison or death.

“These guys do exist,” Deters said of serial killers like Kirkland.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100312/NEWS0107/303120065/1163/Deters%20%20Kirkland%20is%20a%20monster?GID=oEYh8IlCsxiRqkUnmdeCQ7hujvyXhMwyRnxVLUBrAP0%3D

There are "None" good reasons why this evil monster should be allowed to live. None, none, none. Why should he be allowed to live out his life at the expense of taxpayers? Reasons: None, none, none.

Anthony Kirkland: 'There's One More'

Last Update: 3/11 5:46 pm

Some of the content in this story contains graphic information.

CINCINNATI -- Suspected serial killer Anthony Kirkland has admitted to murdering a fourth young woman -- Kimya Rolison.

The statement came Thursday as his taped confession was played for a jury in his murder trial at the Hamilton County Courthouse.

Det. Bill Hilbert was almost finished questioning Kirkland about the killings of Mary Jo Newton, Casonya "Sharee" Crawford and Esme Kenney, when Kirkland said, "there's one more."

Kirkland proceeded to describe his encounter with a prostitute named "Kim."

He said they had sex in his van in Fairview Park in Fairview Heights just before Christmas in 2006. Police came across them and told them to leave the area.

He said he paid Rolison $40, but was mugged when he tried to drop her off at her apartment.

They headed toward University Hospital where Kirkland could be examined, but he balked at going there. The pair ended up in his van parked near the intersection of Central Parkway, Martin Luther King Drive and Hopple Street.

It was there Kirkland said they got into an argument, she produced a knife that he used to stab her in the throat.

"Where at in the throat?" asked Det. Hilbert.

"In the jugular," Kirkland replied.

"Just a lucky shot or did you know what you were doing?" Det. Hilbert continued.

"Just a lucky shot," Kirkland replied matter-of-factly.

Kirkland said they panicked and he just tried to keep the woman calm.

"I told her the blood was coming out too fast, too quick," he said. "She told me she couldn't feel her legs."

At that point, Kirkland said he just held the woman as she died. Later, he took the body to the dead end of Pulte Street in North Fairmount, dumped it in a wooded area and set it on fire. He came back a few weeks later and all that was left was skeletal remains.

In that same statement, Kirkland admitted using a rag and his hands to strangle 13-year-old Esme Kenney to death after sexually assaulting her in March of 2009.

Kirkland said he used the rag because his hands hurt from being out in the cold. He said he choked the girl with his hands, but couldn't grab well enough and pulled a blue rag from his back pocket.

"She was still living and gasping," he said. "I was behind her. She was on her stomach."

Once again, Kirkland apologized for his actions.

"The more I talk this out I can get peace," he told Detective Hilbert.

"I'm not saying it was her fault. It was never her fault," Kirkland said. "The reason I had sex with her is that she said she would do whatever I wanted her to do if I didn't hurt her."

Asked if he knew how old Kenney was, Kirkland replied, "13."

"She was a teenage baby," he added.

Dr. Karen Looman, a forensic pathologist for the Hamilton County Coroner's Office, performed the autopsy on Esme Kenney. In her testimony, she informed the jury that the cause of death was "asphyxiation by ligature strangulation" from a prolonged and violent struggle.

When Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier asked Dr. Looman what the manner was of Kenney's death according to her scientific opinion, she replied with a single word: "Homicide."

Court has now ended for the day.

Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday morning, following by Judge Kubicki's charge to the jury and then deliberations.

If found guilty of killing Crawford and Kenney, Kirkland could be sentenced to death. That will be determined by the same jury next week.

Kirkland has already pleaded guilty to the Newton and Rolison murders.

Click here for a blog of the trial. NOTE: Some of the content of this BLOG contains graphic information.

http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/Anthony-Kirkland-Theres-One-More/xJVjh2ZQkE6sOghT1xSGtQ.cspx

Anthony Kirkland Sentenced To Death

Last Update: 9:58 am March 31, 2010

CINCINNATI -- Convicted serial killer Anthony Kirkland has been sentenced to death for the murders of 13-year-old Esme Kenney and 14-year-old Casonya “Sharee” Crawford.

The sentencing comes Wednesday in accordance with the jury's recommendation after nearly a month long trial of intense confessions and emotional testimony.

Kirkland sat emotionless while Common Pleas Judge Charles Kubicki, Jr. read the sentencing.

When asked if he had anything to say, Kirkland only wished to "apologize to the families."

Judge Kubicki found no mitigating factors in the defense's stance and read that Kirkland is to be sentenced to die for the crimes he has been convicted of.

Several family members of Kirkland's murder victims spoke after the sentencing was read. They offered their thanks to the judge for his decision and expressed their anger towards Kirkland's actions.

Kirkland looked right into the eyes of the family members that spoke without changing his expression.

Kirkland's execution date has been set for September 30.

http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story/Anthony-Kirkland-Sentenced-To-Death/U9XGdsNDWUm7C1pLuyGQCw.cspx

"Kirkland's execution date has been set for September 30."


If only it would happen as scheduled.