COLUMBUS: The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a killer who strangled a 73-year-old man.
The court ruled 6-1 Tuesday to reject arguments raised by attorneys for Steven Cepec, sentenced to die for killing Frank Munz in Munz’s Medina County home in June 2010.
The 47-year-old Cepec unsuccessfully argued that some of his statements to police should have been disallowed and that he had poor legal help.
The court also rejected arguments that a prosecutor improperly said a jury could consider the amount of force used during the crime.
The court set an execution date in 2021 but an actual execution is several more years away because of appeals and uncertainty over Ohio’s supply of lethal injection drugs.
According to prosecutors at his 2013 trial, Cepec beat Munz to death with the claw end of a hammer and strangled him with a lamp cord. Cepec told the jury during unsworn testimony that he intended to rob Munz to get money to buy drugs, but ended up killing him when Munz fought back.
He could have been sentenced to death, life in prison without parole or with parole eligibility after 25 or 30 years.
Cepec was arrested within an hour after killing Munz. Within 24 hours, he confessed to sheriff’s deputies that he was the killer.
According to corrections records, Cepec had been in and out of prison since 1988. He was released from prison on parole days before he killed Munz.