CASE FILE: Robert E. Williams
AGE: 66
INCARCERATED: Allen Correctional Institution
PAROLE HEARING: June 2025 (previous in 2015, 2020)
SENTENCE: The late Trumbull County Judge Robert A. Nader sentenced Williams to 23 years to life in prison after he pleaded guilty in 1989 to charges of aggravated murder with gun specification and gross sexual imposition.
THE CRIME: Williams was convicted of the shooting and slashing death of a 24-year-old pregnant waitress and mother of two in the fall of 1988 who served Williams a shrimp dinner at a tavern in Trumbull County. After an argument over a burnt shrimp dinner, Williams shot the victim twice, once in the back of the head and the other in the back of her torso. As the waitress, Debra Blaine, tried to go for a telephone, William got a knife from the kitchen and slashed her throat. He then fondled her breasts, before stepping on her throat until she stopped breathing.
“Unlike active volcanoes of the world, if this guy were released, he would have virtually unlimited access to go and find places or people he wants to find and choose his site to violently explode.”
Prosecuting Attorney Dennis Watkins
Watkins said Williams’ prison conduct included threatening a corrections officer in 2015. He stated that in the past and currently, the family of victim Blaine and members of Williams’ own family are opposing his release, in fear of him.
Members of the public may submit comments about the potential parole of Robert Williams. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy M. Vogrin, public information officer/investigator for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office at 330-675-2485.
Age: 64 (born 7/25/1960)
Incarcerated: Richland Correctional Institution
Parole hearing: April 2025. This will be Santine’s first hearing.
Convicted on March 20, 1997, on charges of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, attempted aggravated murder with a three-year gun specification, in the 1995 murder of Ann Serafino and the attempted murder of Charles Serafino, during the early morning hours of July 7, 1995, at the Serafino residence in Hubbard.
He was sentenced to a 43-year-to-life prison sentence by the late Trumbull County Judge John M. Stuard.
Santine was one of four people convicted in the murder-for-hire scheme. One of them, Jason Getsy, was executed by the state of Ohio in August 2009 at the age of 33 after Gov. Strickland rejected his clemency bid.
According to court documents, Santine offered to pay co-defendant Ben Hudach, along with co-defendants Getsy and Rick McNulty, $5,000 to kill Charles Serafino and any witness.
The crime was orchestrated because Santine was in a dispute over ownership of a landscaping business with Charles Serafino. According to evidence, Charles Serafino was lying wounded on the floor when Getsy struck his mother, Ann, in the head with a revolver, opening a 4-inch gash, and then shot her twice, killing her, saying “die bitch die!” Later, Getsy told a woman at a party that a piece of pizza with no cheese on it “looks like this bitch’s face after we shot her.”
QUOTES: “John Santine, the oldest of four conspirators, hatched a plan to murder, helped with the details along the way, and provided transportation to his accomplices and the actual killer to the victim’s house and then reveled in the murder and mayhem he brought, and afterwards, when the blood lust was finished, he was at 24½ South Main to greet and toast the killers and the deed, telling one of his accomplices after believing two victims were murdered in cold blood: ‘I f---ing love these guys!’ ”
“This man has yet to serve his minimum sentence and deserves no mercy or release by this Parole Board or any other in the future. Every remaining day of him serving his lucky life sentence he should be giving thanks that he didn’t join Getsy earlier. But some day, he may reprise in seeing Getsy again where evil resides eternally. Please, this man deserves no parole! The memory of homeowner Ann Serafino deserves better!”
Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County Prosecutor
Members of the public may submit comments about the potential parole of John Santine. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy M. Vogrin, public information officer/investigator for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office at 330-675-2485.
AGE: 45 (born 6/13/1979)
INCARCERATED: Marion Correctional Institution
PAROLE HEARING: May 2025
SENTENCED: On March 19, 2004, Lyons was sentenced to 10 years to life by former Trumbull County Judge W. Wyatt McKay on rape with firearm specification and one count of kidnapping.
The female victim was 12 years old at the time of the incident. She lived in the same neighborhood as Lyons’ grandmother. The victim knew Lyons because she would walk his dogs. The victim testified Lyons asked her to step inside of the house when she came over to ask to walk the dogs. Following a kiss, Lyons put a gun to the victim’s head and told her he would kill her if she told anyone about what he did. Lyons then put his finger into the victim’s vagina and then inserted his tongue into her vagina before engaging in sexual intercourse with her.
Tragically, Lyons’ victim died in March 2020 of a drug overdose at the age of 30, leaving behind her husband and four children. Her sister told a prosecutor that the victim suffered a “breakdown” about the day she was raped by Lyons and had lamented the fact that her life was never right after she was attacked.
Meanwhile, according to Assistant Prosecutor Michael Burnett who prosecuted Lyons’ case, there is absolutely no evidence that inmate Lyons has made any genuine attempt to rehabilitate himself while in prison.
“To the contrary, he entered institutional life and joined a notorious street/prison gang,” Burnett wrote to the parole board. “It is clear that Inmate Lyons’ history of institutional infractions and gang affiliation shows that he is still engaging in a pattern of aggressive and lawless behavior.”
Burnett stated the inmate has also failed to complete a “stunning number” of the programs he started in the state penitentiary.
In his letter to the parole board, Burnett concludes that Lyons “cannot be rehabilitated.”
“It is our opinion that releasing Inmate Lyons would be careless and present an unreasonable risk to society and demean the seriousness of the offenses he committed.” Burnett writes.
QUOTE:
“The fact that he (Lyons) broke poor 12-year-old (victim) to the point that she was never able to recover… is appalling. What is even more appalling is the fact that he left her so damaged that she ultimately died from the addiction-fueled psychological trauma that he inflicted on her.”
Members of the public may submit comments about the potential parole of Deavery Lyons. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy M. Vogrin, public information officer/investigator for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office at 330-675-2485.
The Ohio Parole Board’s Notification Unit informed Jenna Maze, coordinator of the Prosecutor’s Victim/Witness Division, that inmate Roy G. Green was denied parole after the offender appeared before a board panel on April 1, 2025, for a hearing on release consideration.
Green, 72, is serving an 18-year-to-life prison term at Allen Correctional Institution after being convicted of charges of murder with a firearm specification, abuse of a corpse and receiving stolen property connected to the Dec. 23, 1994, shotgun death of Devin Griffin in Warren.
It was decided by the parole board to continue Green’s case for parole for five years until the offender will be seen again by the state board in February 2030.
Prosecuting Attorney Dennis Watkins, who prosecuted Green’s and a few other dismemberment cases in his career, says Green may be the record holder for the number of body parts. “Green used a shotgun, ax and knife to kill and destroy a human being.”
Watkins said he was “well pleased by the board’s decision.” In past correspondence with the board, Watkins had characterized Green “as sane crazy,” because Green’s actions were
crazy, but he undertook them with awareness.
Watkins noted that Green’s son, who was a key eyewitness in the murder case, is one of several Green family members who fear his release from the prison system.
According to evidence in the murder case, Green enlisted his son to help him dump trash bags full of body parts in a wooded area and a shallow pond during the Christmas holidays
of 1994.
As the Prosecutor’s office wrote the board: “The sheer brutality and inhumanity in the defendant’s continuous conduct exceeds belief.” (See state’s letter in opposition to parole
dated March 31, 2025 , attached.)
Members of the public may submit comments about the potential parole of Roy G. Green. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy M. Vogrin, public information officer/investigator for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s
Office at 330-675-2485.
AGE: 70(born 1/25/1955)
INCARCERATED: Marion Correctional Institution
PAROLE HEARING: April 2025 (sixth parole hearing)
SENTENCED: Aggregate sentence of 15 to 75 years
Whisonant was convicted by a jury in 1985 in the rapes of four family members — three girls and one boy ages 5 to 9 — in Howland. A count involving a fifth family member — a 4-year-old girl — was dismissed to spare her the ordeal of testifying at trial.
Sentencing laws were different back then for those convicted of raping young children, Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said. Today, those offenders would face a maximum life in prison.
Watkins wrote that Whisonant is a serial rapist and a “textbook pedophile.” He stated an examination of three of Whisonant’s female victims found healing lacerations and tears in their private areas.
While in prison, Whisonant still has trouble controlling himself. Since 2022, he has been written up for various prison rules infractions five different times, including stealing and assault. His latest write-up was November 27, 2024.
Marcia Tiger, former executive director of Trumbull County Children Services, wrote in a letter that: “The Whisonant case became the standard bearer for horrific sexual abuse cases in our county.”
QUOTE:
“If released from prison, this guy who has assaulted others in prison may have the urge to once again prey on the youngest among us! Let’s make sure not to give him that opportunity by continuing the long remaining sentence the court saw fit to give him in 1985.”
Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County Prosecutor
Members of the public may submit comments about the potential parole of John Whisonant. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input For more information, contact Guy M. Vogrin, public information officer/investigator for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office at 330-675-2485.
AGE: 66
INCARCERATED: Grafton Correctional Institution
PAROLE HEARING: Denied...Next hearing set for 2027
SENTENCE: Given 18-year to life prison sentence in October 1995, by then Trumbull County Judge Mitchell F. Shaker after being convicted of charges of murder and having weapon while under disability.
A convicted murderer from Trumbull County has been denied parole by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority.
Jenna Maze, coordinator with the Prosecutor’s Victim/Witness Division, learned Friday, March 7, 2025, that Felix Brown, 66, has been denied in his bid for parole.
His next parole hearing is scheduled for December 2027.
Brown will remain incarcerated at Grafton Correctional Institution.
In October 1995, Brown was given 18-year to life prison sentence in October 1995, by the late Trumbull County Judge Mitchell F. Shaker after being convicted of charges of murder and having weapon while under disability.
Brown was convicted by a jury of killing his girlfriend Monica Brandon on Feb. 24, 1995, by shooting her in the forehead with a gun he kept near the headboard of the bed of his Niles apartment. Brown had claimed the shot was fired as an accident during an argument. Prosecutors stated Brown shot Brandon deliberately because he was angry she was dating other men. Brown admitted during the trial that he lied when telling a 911 dispatcher that robbers had killed Brandon.
As a repeat offender, Brown had previous served a prison sentence in 1981 for conviction in a breaking and entering offense. In 1983, he went back to prison for convictions receiving stolen property and forgery. Again in 1994, Brown was sentenced to prison for drug possession and drug trafficking positions.
Prosecutor Dennis Watkins was pleased with the parole board’s decision on Brown’s potential parole saying this man’s release would “surely be a danger to the community.”
Brown has also petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court hoping for relief citing 6th and 14th Amendment infringements, due process abuses and Brady violations because of a recent trial court’s decision which denied his motion for leave to file a motion for a new trial, which was filed more than 25 years after a jury found him guilty of murder.
Members of the public may submit comments about the potential parole of Felix Brown. Comments can be made through the ODRC website: https://drc.ohio.gov/systems-and-services/1-parole/parole-board-hearing-input
For more information, contact Guy M. Vogrin, public information officer/investigator for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office at 330-675-2485.
The Ohio Adult Parole Authority has extended the prison stays of two violent offenders from Trumbull County, who have been imprisoned for a total o
f 73 years.
Jenna Maze, administrative assistant for the Victim/Witness Division of the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office, learned on Jan. 21 that bids for parole have been denied for both Van Gentry Fickes, 60, and David Owens, 59.
Fickes, photo at left, who is serving a 30-year-to-life prison sentence for conviction of two counts of murder, has been extended until at least October 2029, while Owens, photo at right, who is serving four life sentences for convictions of rape, has been extended by the parole board until at least October 2027.
Prosecuting Attorney Dennis Watkins said he is very pleased with the decisions, saying the victims and family members of these crimes -- and the public in general -- will be safe. In his opinion, the release of these offenders, based on their histories, would present “a clear and present danger to the public.”
In letters objecting to his possible parole, Watkins wrote that Owens has “a disgusting sexual appetite for children under age 13” and has shown continued bad conduct with dozens of prison rule infractions, including drug use, fights, threats, destruction of property and the stalking and threatening of a female corrections officer.
By age 27, Owens had been a repeat violent offender some 17 different times between 1985 and 1988 before getting a six-month prison sentence for two counts of forgery and one count of receiving stolen property. In 1992, he was arrested by Warren police for multiple counts of rape and kidnapping, involving four female victims ages 9,9, 8 and 5.
At a 1985 jury trial before the Honorable Judge David F. McLain, Fickes was convicted in the 1983 violent slayings of Christine and Ronald Fickes -- his mother and brother -- who were killed by shotgun blasts. The murders were committed while Fickes was on probation for attempted breaking and entering convictions. In his letter to the parole board, Watkins called Fickes “truly devoid of conscience.”
Watkins and his assistant prosecutor and former Common Pleas Judge Peter Kontos tried the case for the state.
For more information, contact Guy M. Vogrin, public information officer/investigator for the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office at 330-675-2485.