Published: Sunday, November 5, 2006
Lawyer: Addiction controlled Cliburn
Testimony indicated Jermaine McKinney killed Rebecca Cliburn because she didn't give him money.
By ED RUNYAN
WARREN — A defense attorney says he could see Rebecca Cliburn's life was headed in a dangerous direction last year, after she had been indicted three times on drug charges between June 13 and Sept. 27.
Anthony Consoldane, a public defender from Warren who was representing her, said he tried to get the 45-year-old Warren woman to enter a drug treatment program. He was, however, unable to persuade her to participate.
"I was trying to do something to get her off the street," Consoldane said, adding that he feared for her safety.
A couple of months later, she was dead, killed along with her mother, Wanda Rollyson, Dec. 21 in Rollyson's Newton Township home during a robbery.
The robbery and murders were committed by Jermaine McKinney, 26, of Youngstown and Girard, who was convicted Friday of aggravated murder in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in the deaths of Rollyson and Cliburn. The mitigation phase of his trial will be held Nov. 16 and 17 in Judge W. Wyatt McKay's courtroom to determine whether he receives the death penalty.
Three women were charged as accomplices and were given plea bargains in exchange for their testimony at McKinney's trial.
Drug, violence connection
Darryl Rodgers, administrator of Trumbull County's drug court program, said situations such as Cliburn's are the type where someone could end up dead.
"We see it all the time," Rodgers said. "The reality is there is a strong connection between drugs and violence. When you look at violent crime in this country, drugs are involved."
The drug court program diverts drug offenders into a program in which an offender's convictions are set aside to see if he or she can kick their drug habit. If they cannot, they usually go to prison.
In the case of Cliburn, she routinely made trips to her mother's isolated rural home to get $100 to $200 in cash, Cliburn's daughter, Melissa Barry of Austintown, testified during the trial.
Barry, 24, said her mother had been addicted to drugs for as long as she could remember and would have friends drive her to Rollyson's house to get the money for drugs. Sometimes, Cliburn's friends would drive her to Rollyson's church in Newton Falls so that Rollyson could take them to an ATM for cash.
Many times, Barry testified, Rollyson had said she had "had it" with her only child's drug problems and vowed that she would cut off the funds.
Barry testified that Rollyson, who had been left a widow about 18 months before her death, had been left a large amount of money. About $100,000 had come from an insurance settlement Rollyson's husband, Aaron, had been awarded because of injuries he received in a car accident a few years before he died.
Drug problem got worse
Barry testified that in the fall of 2005, she too, noticed that her mother's problems were getting worse. All of the drug charges had convinced Cliburn that she was probably headed to prison, Barry said. In fact, Cliburn did try drug rehab last fall but it didn't work for her, Barry said.
Barry says she isn't convinced that drugs were the reason her mother was killed. "She [Cliburn] would have just wrote out a check," Barry said of anyone who would have tried to get money from her.
Testimony from accomplice Keyatta Riley Hines, 21, however, indicated McKinney was not interested in small amounts of cash when he and Riley Hines made plans to rob Cliburn and Rollyson on Dec. 21. Riley Hines testified that she and Mc-
Kinney had planned a "lick" on Cliburn because Rollyson had $50,000.
Riley Hines also testified that McKinney told her the reason he killed Cliburn is because she didn't give him the money she promised. Riley Hines and another accomplice, Jazzmine McIver of Warren, testified that McKinney told them he shot Rollyson in the head and hit Cliburn in the head with a crowbar. He is accused of later setting the women's bodies on fire to dispose of evidence.
Suspected mother, brother
Barry, who said she was close to her grandmother and talked with her several times every day, said she did initially believe that her mother and brother, Nathan Vargo, might have had some involvement in hurting her grandmother. She said she suspected them because of their drug addictions.
After trying to call Rollyson on the telephone numerous times the day of her death and the next day without luck, Barry eventually went to Rollyson's house on Dec. 22. She called 911 when she found her grandmother's car in the garage but no answer at the door.
She told the 911 operator right then of her suspicions about her brother and mother.
Later, Barry learned that her mother had also died in the house. Vargo remained a suspect for several days but when authorities learned about McKinney, they discontinued their investigation into Vargo.
Addiction affects family
Rodgers said it can be difficult knowing what to do for a family member who is addicted to drugs. Giving money to the person so they can continue to buy drugs is not always the best decision, but cutting the person off from family may not be well advised either, he said.
The key for family members is to become educated on "the concept of the disease" of alcoholism or drug addiction so they can understand the "character defects" associated with it, such as being manipulative and lying.
"They need to understand who the person has become in the addiction and when to apply tough love," Rodgers said.
Applying tough love, Rodgers said, is making it clear to an addicted loved one that, "'as long as you are being honest in your recovery, you have our support.' For a person to get well, you have to be unwilling to allow the person to lie and use them in the addiction."
Rodgers recommended that family members dealing with such a problem contact Al Anon, which provides support for family members of alcoholics and drug addicts. Al Anon, a separate organization, supports the work of Alcoholics Anonymous.
runyan@vindy.com
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