Anthony Sowell’s home in Cleveland was a house of horrors for the 11 women whose bodies were found there. He is charged with 83 counts that include kidnapping, rape, assault and aggravated murder. If found guilty of the murder charge, Sowell could get the death penalty.
UPDATE: On Friday, July 22, at 2:30 p.m., ex-Marine Sowell was found guilty of 84 0f 85 counts. The only count on which he was found not guilty was on an aggravated robbery charge. Reportedly, he showed no emotion after the verdict was read following two hours of deliberation by the jury.
Prosecutors called more than 50 witnesses, including Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s niece Lori Frazer who was once the accused killer’s girlfriend. Frazer testified that during their relationship Sowell often had suspicious injuries that he explained away. Once he blamed a deep gash across his head, and blood on the floor and walls, on an intruder who entered his home and attacked him.
Other witnesses for the prosecution were women who said they escaped from Sowell’s home after he attacked them. Sowell’s attorney John Parker attempted to introduce police and psychiatric reports regarding the surviving victims, but Judge Dick Ambrose would not allow it.
Sowell’s defense team received $100,000 from the court to spend on forensic and psychological experts, but Parker rested the case without calling a single witness to the stand.
The case is now in the hands of the jury.
