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After death penalty overturned, killer of two gets at least 61 years
By Ed Meyer
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, May 13, 2008
An Akron man convicted of the Christmas Eve 1995 murders of Julie Schrey and Deborah Thorpe and the attempted murder of Thorpe's son was resentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 61 years.
Clifton White III would be 96 before becoming eligible for his first parole hearing, according to terms of his new sentence.
As family members and friends of the victims were leaving the courtroom, Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Michael E. Carroll assured them White's long run through the justice system was finally over.
''You will never hear about Clifton White again unless he does something horrible in prison. This is the end of him,'' Carroll said.
White appeared before visiting Judge Herman F. Inderlied Jr. in the resentencing hearing after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled last month that he was not eligible for the death penalty because he was mentally retarded.
The 7-0 decision, written by Justice Robert R. Cupp, pertained to White's appeal of his original sentence from his aggravated murder conviction in the Thorpe slaying.
Schrey and Thorpe, both 38, were killed execution-style with a shotgun, Inderlied noted in his decision, at White's Day Street apartment in Akron. They had gone there on Dec. 24, 1995, to retrieve belongings of Schrey's daughter, Heather Kawczk, who was 19 at the time.
Prosecutors said White was angry over the breakup of his relationship with Schrey's daughter.
After the two women were killed — by deer-slug blasts from
a 12-gauge pump shotgun, police said — White went to a fast-food restaurant on South Arlington Street where Schrey's daughter and Thorpe's son, then-18-year-old Michael Thorpe, were working.
When Michael Thorpe attempted to intervene, White ''responded by shooting Thorpe in the head . . . then he fled,'' court records stated.
Michael Thorpe survived the shooting, the records said, but lost most of his right ear, part of his skull and the right upper lobe of his brain.
After addressing Inderlied in open court, Thorpe said he was satisfied with the judge's decision.
''I wanted to explain to the judge what impact this has had on me. My life will never be the same. I've got to wake up every morning and look in the mirror and, guess what, I don't have an ear anymore,'' Thorpe said.
He said he has had multiple surgeries to the right side of his head.
''I'll be going for the rest of my life to get this worked on, and I wanted the judge to know he changed my life that much. This was a great family, very well known for that in the neighborhood,'' Thorpe said, ''but all that's gone now.''
Defense lawyer Kathryn L. Sandford argued in a sentencing brief that White was ''raised in a dysfunctional family.''
''His father was convicted of raping Clifton's sister, and Clifton's mother, Shirley, abused alcohol and would use various items to beat her children,'' the records said.
White was in the 10th grade for the third time — at age 19 — when he was dismissed from school because he was over the high school age limit, Sandford said. In 2002, when White filed a post-conviction appeal in Summit County, psychological experts appointed for the state and the defense collaborated in testing of White. They established his IQ as 52, Sandford noted.
Inderlied, however, said the seriousness of White's crimes overwhelmed any mitigating factors in his defense.
''Mr. White's conduct,'' the judge said, ''constitutes a virtual execution of innocent bystanders.''
Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or emeyer@thebeaconjournal.com.
An Akron man convicted of the Christmas Eve 1995 murders of Julie Schrey and Deborah Thorpe and the attempted murder of Thorpe's son was resentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 61 years.
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