Biros execution to be 1st from Trumbull in 68 years

Print Story

Email to Friend

Discuss this story

'I just can't wait,' Tami Engstrom's sister said about the pending execution.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — It's been 68 years since someone was executed for a Trumbull County murder.

Nick Babich, 54, of State Road, Southington, was executed by electrocution May 9, 1939, in Columbus. He used a hatchet and razor on Dec. 4, 1938, to kill his wife, Barbara.

Babich then cut the throat of Dan Gross of nearby Bronson Road, believing he'd caused him to be fired from the Works Progress Administration.

It's also been 32 years since Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins began to work on murder cases here — 23 of those as prosecutor.

He's since participated in the prosecution of nine of the 10 people currently on Ohio's death row from Trumbull County.

Despite Trumbull's having one of the highest numbers of death row inmates for any county in the state — second to Hamilton County, per capita — no Trumbull County murder has resulted in an execution during Watkins' tenure.

On Tuesday morning, all this is likely to change.

Kenneth Biros, 48, of Brookfield Township is scheduled to die by lethal injection in the state's death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

His crime was brutalizing and murdering Tami Engstrom of Hubbard on Feb. 8, 1991, near his King Graves Road home, and then dismembering her.

Ohio's changes in law regarding capital punishment partially explain the death row numbers for Trumbull County.

Ohio reinstituted the death penalty in 1974, one year after Watkins became an assistant Trumbull prosecutor.

In 1975, Watkins assisted with the prosecution of Pompie Wade of Warren, who killed Warren beverage store worker Dominic Chiarella during a robbery in the Austin Village Plaza.

Wade's death sentence, however, was later commuted to life in prison because Ohio's death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in 1978.

The state's current death penalty went into effect 1981.

On death row

This was followed by Trumbull County's first death sentence of the new era being imposed on Danny Lee Hill in 1986 for killing Raymond Fife, 12, on a Warren bike path.

Two other Trumbull death sentences were imposed — on Charles Lorraine (killings of Raymond and Doris Montgomery of Warren) and Andre Williams (killing of George Melnick in Warren) — before the Biros sentence was imposed in 1991.

There are 188 inmates on the state's current death row list.

Watkins said the high number of death row convictions from his office is tribute to the professionalism of the people who have worked there over the years, and not a reflection of his personal attitude toward the death penalty.

"By being vigilant and enforcing the law, you provide confidence in the community that you can prosecute offenders," Watkins said, adding that the county's common pleas court judges have also done their part to "enforce the law" that the citizens of the state believe is appropriate.

Believes in it

Though some Ohio residents oppose the death penalty, Watkins said he believes in it — and believes it sends the right message to criminals.

"I think it has an effect, and a more healthy effect if it is carried out sooner," Watkins said. "If the law is carried out, it has an effect on the perception in the community that there is justice. As long as we have the law, it should be enforced."

Watkins noted that some death penalty opponents point to cases where innocent people have been put to death as a reason capital punishment should not go forward.

That is not a consideration for Kenneth Biros, Watkins said.

"This case cries out for the death penalty," Watkins said. "The point is, he is a monster."

The coroner who performed the autopsy on Engstrom's body said she had suffered 91 injuries before her death, all of them part of a "severe beating."

The 22-year-old mother and wife had been cut up after her death and parts of her body placed in three different locations miles apart. Her cause of death was strangulation.

Biros later admitted killing Engstrom and led authorities to her body, but said her death was an accident.

Family to attend

Debi Heiss of Hubbard, Engstrom's sister, is making plans for a second time to attend the execution — the first time being in January, when the sentence was originally set to be carried out. Gov. Ted Strickland moved the execution back two months to review the case in more detail.

Heiss will be in the death house, where she will watch Biros die.

"I just can't wait," said Heiss, whose mother, MaryJane Heiss, and her brother, Tom Heiss, are also planning to witness the execution.

"It's going to be the biggest lift off of my shoulders," she said. "It's going to be like a new life."

The years of watching Biros' legal maneuverings and the obstacles to his execution have been like "having a Band-Aid ripped off of a wound over time. It doesn't heal," she added.

In all, about 20 of Engstrom's relatives and friends are making the trip to Lucasville with a couple of representatives from the county's victim witness division of the prosecutor's office, including Miriam Fife.

Fife won't be witnessing the execution, she said, but she will assist Engstrom's family throughout the day.

Fife has 21 years of working in the justice system since Hill killed her son, Raymond, in 1985. She said she believes she'll be emotional if Hill ever ends up in the death house.

"At the point where they wheel the person in on the gurney, I'd be emotional then," she said.

Both Heiss and Fife are prepared for a flurry of last-minute legal challenges and cross-challenges to the execution. They both plan to take them in stride.

But Heiss is confident that if something prevents the execution from taking place, it won't be because of Strickland, who she said has been "tight-lipped" about his thoughts on the execution.

"Hopefully it will be a go," she said.

runyan@vindy.com

Sunday, March 18, 2007