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An Ohio serial killer convicted of murdering 11 women in Cleveland died in prison Monday from a terminal illness, officials said.
Anthony Sowell, 61, was admitted on Jan.21 to the end-of-life care unit at a medical treatment prison in Columbus, a corrections spokesperson said. He was pronounced dead at 3:27 p.m. Monday after an illness unrelated to Covid-19, spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said.
Sowell, who served as a Marine, was sentenced to death in 2011 after a jury found him guilty of aggravated murder, rape, kidnapping, corpse abuse and tampering with evidence.
He began luring victims to his home in 2007, prosecutors said, and two years later, after a woman told police she was raped at her home, authorities found two bodies and a newly dug grave there.
They later found the remains of other women in garbage bags and plastic sheeting thrown or buried around her home and belongings.
Sowell’s victims included Tonia Carmichael, Nancy Cobbs, Tishana Culver, Crystal Dozier, Telacia Fortson, Amelda Hunter, Leshanda Long, Michelle Mason, Kim Yvette Smith, Diane Turner and Janice Webb.
Sowell sought to overturn his conviction and death sentence, with a public defender arguing in an appeal that the death penalty was unconstitutional and that Sowell did not have enough investigators and expert witnesses to properly defend himself at trial, Cleveland.com reported.
A panel of three judges dismissed the appeal last year, according to the site. The city of Cleveland paid lawsuit settlements totaling more than $ 1.3 million to the victim’s families over how detectives handled the allegations before Sowell’s arrest, the site reported.
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