WARREN — The conviction and death sentence will stand for Donna Roberts, who was convicted in the 2001 slaying of her ex-husband Robert Fingerhut in Howland.

Roberts, 79, is the only woman on Ohio’s Death Row. She filed a petition in the U.S. Northern Ohio District Court in late 2021 outlining 15 grounds for relief, two of which she later withdrew.

After review of each, Judge Dan Polster decided none had merit. A 120-page opinion was later released by the judge on his decision.

“Judge Polster did a thorough job of analyzing each of the issues raised by the defense. We are pleased that he found no merit to any of the issues Roberts’ defense team raised, and the conviction and death sentence will stand,” Chuck Morrow, Trumbull County assistant prosecutor, said.

Roberts was convicted in 2003 of two aggravated murder charges with death penalty specifications, plus separate charges of aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary with gun specifications.

Roberts carried out the murder plot of her ex-husband with help from her lover Nathaniel Jackson, who carried out the murder in December 2001 at Fingerhut’s home on Fonderlac Drive, hoping to collect his more than $500,000 life insurance proceeds. Roberts and Fingerhut were divorced at the time, but shared the residence.

Eighteen jail phone calls and nearly 300 letters were exchanged between Roberts and Jackson while he was in prison and served as evidence of the conspiracy. Jackson had been released from prison only a few days prior to the murder.

Roberts filed a series of appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court sent her her case back to the trial court for resentencing because of procedural errors. That hearing took place Oct. 29, 2007, in which the trial court reimposed the death penalty.

On May 7, 2013, Roberts had her death sentence vacated again by the state high court because the trial court failed to consider the defendant’s allocution. Allocution is the process by which a guilty plea is made and accepted in a criminal case. The judge poses a series of questions to determine whether the defendant understands the consequences of the plea and has entered it under her own free will.

With a different judge presiding, the trial court again imposed Roberts’ death sentence on April 30, 2014.

Roberts remains incarcerated in the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

cmcbride@tribtoday.com