The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death penalty for a man convicted of brutally stabbing two roommates, hiding their bodies in trash bags and trying to hire a friend to burn their bodies, according to reports.
Thomas Knuff was sentenced to death row in 2019 for the murders of John Mann, 65, and Regina Capobianco, 50, in Parma Heights, southwest of Cleveland, in 2017.
The court rejected Knuff's argument that he stabbed Capobianco in self-defense after he came upon her attacking Mann with a knife and then turned the weapon on him, according to Cleveland.com.
Capobianco was stabbed six times and Mann was stabbed 15 times.
Justice Joseph T. Deters wrote in the opinion that the evidence "strongly supports the jury's rejection of Knuff's self-defense claim and its finding that he killed both Mann and Capobianco."
Knuff moved into a home with Mann and Capobianco, whom he met through a pen-pal program while he was serving a 15-year sentence for aggravated robbery, shortly after he was released from prison in April 2017.
During his time in prison, Knuff also began a relationship with Alicia Stoner, an employee of the facility. Stoner told Knuff that she would pick him up when he was releasedthat April, but he declined, saying he was going to get a ride with "John and his old lady," referring to Mann and Capobianco.
Knuff initially moved into a hotel room paid by Stoner, but later his parole officer, Marc Fisher, learned that Knuff was not staying at the hotel but with Mann.
Mann was also living with Capobianco, who was engaged in selling drugs and prostitution, often inside the home.
A conflict quickly developed between her and Knuff, who faced parole violations because of her criminal activities.
That May, Stoner noticed that Knuff's finger was bandaged, and he explained that drug dealers had come to the home to threaten Capobianco.
Mann and Capobianco got into a fight, and she stabbed him.
Knuff told Stoner that he injured his finger when Capobianco attacked him.
After stabbing Capobianco, Knuff told Stoner he blacked out.
Knuff left their bodies in the home for more than two months while he tried to find somebody to dispose of them.
Knuff wrote a letter to Robert Dlugo, asking him to come to the home and take care of some "incriminating s--t."
"So now I'm really in a jam because before I get out, some evidence will be discovered * * *, I'll probably die in prison. * * * I need someone I can trust to go start a fire at the house I was staying at. * * * I have some trash bags in a back bedroom with clothes & papers that when discovered, my life is over," Knuff wrote, according to court documents.
DLugo did not go through with Knuff's ask.
Police found the bodies when Capobianco's family reported her missing.No date has been set for Knuff's execution.
