The BG News
Killer Says Prosecutor Did Not Let Him Plead
11-15-2005
RAVENNA, Ohio (AP) - A man sentenced to death yesterday for killing his live-in girlfriend, her 7-year-old son and a college student from Canada accused the prosecutor of playing politics by not allowing him to plead guilty without a trial.
James Trimble, 45, of Brimfield Township, about 50 miles southeast of Cleveland, said he wanted to accept the death penalty to avoid causing the relatives of the victims further emotional pain, but that Portage County Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci would not let him.
Vigluicci said the notion was absurd.
"It's the first I've heard of that," Vigluicci said after Trimble was sentenced. "He could have pleaded guilty and accepted the death penalty in this case any time he wanted to do so. He is a remorseless, cold-blooded killer who has been making excuses for himself from the day he was captured."
Trimble was convicted of shooting girlfriend Renee Bauer, 42, and her son, Dakota, on Jan. 21, then going to the nearby apartment of Kent State University student Sarah Positano, 22, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Positano was held hostage before she was shot in the neck the next morning.
A jury Nov. 8 recommended the death penalty two weeks after convicting him of three counts of aggravated murder.
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