Denny Obermiller

This crime is one of the most heinous that I have come across, not necessarily because of the crime itself, but because of the relationship between the victims and the perpetrator. Even still one of the things that shocks me is how the justice system handled things inside the court.

For over two decades many states have required those convicted of sex offenses to register with the local police department upon their release from prison and have restrictions they must follow. In 2006 the federal government it mandated that states have a registry, which all did, but by their rules. There are still arguments on whether the federal rules are the “right ones,” just as there are still arguments on whether the registry itself is legal. Initially these registries were enacted to warn law enforcement and the public of the “worse of the worse” when it came to sexual crimes, especially those against children. Over the years the states have added more and more offenses to the registry as well as what they allow the public to see. Study, after study has found that these registries do little when it comes to protecting the public or preventing someone who truly wants to re-offend. Despite this states and the federal government continue to rely on the registry and add more and more crimes to the list. Judges and politicians put a lot of emphasis on the sex offender registry but it seems that the public has taken less interest in the registry for the most part over the years. It appears that the public in general have two ideas about the effectiveness and the registry itself. First there is the side that believes the registries have gone too far in their inclusion of crimes and pay little to no attention to it at all, even to those accused of the most violent crimes. Then there is the side in which believes anyone and everyone on the list continues to be a predator no matter how minor their initial crime may have been. It is this latter group of people that are also often accused of harassing those on the list and their families.

With all of that being said, let me say that the crime that Denny Obermiller committed would, in my opinion, have garnered him the right to be on the sex offender registry as a violent offender. In fact, a previous crime he committed would have done the same, if it had not occurred prior to the enactment of the registry. The point in discussing the registry at all in this particular blog is to show despite studies showing the registry is ineffective, how much emphasis judges and the government put on it. For his crime Denny Obermiller eventually pleaded guilty and waived his right to present mitigating circumstances that would have saved him from the death penalty. The court would rule that he would be sentenced to death but before they concluded the hearing, or even officially give Obermiller his sentence, there was an uproar in the courtroom when the court insisted that he sign a paper stating that he understood that if he were ever released from prison that he would be required to sign up for the sex offender registry. Denny Obermller refused to sign the paper and his attorney's agreed. After a huge discussion Denny eventually signed the paper but added and expletive to the court. Of course this showed what kind of man they were dealing with but in the same respect I think it also shows how ridiculously serious the courts take the registry.

It is not uncommon for someone to plead guilty to a crime to avoid a trial. What is uncommon is to see someone who is facing the death penalty to plead guilty without an expressed agreement from prosecutors that they would no longer seek the death penalty. But, that was just the case with Denny Obermiller. Obermiller pleaded guilty to seventeen counts against him. They included multiple charges of aggravating murder against his two victims, kidnapping, rape, robbery, theft, attempted arson and tampering with evidence.

No one seems to dispute that Denny Obermiller had a tough childhood. When he was two years old his mother, Ginnie Lou, was shot in the head and killed at the age of twenty when she she got in the middle of a domestic dispute between friends. Whether his father was already in prison is unclear but by all accounts this would occur while he was “a young boy.” My research indicated that several relatives were involved in raising Denny and everyone agreed that his maternal grandmother, Candace Schneider loved her grandson and often turned a blind eye to his violence.

By 2010 Denny had recently been released from prison after serving nine years on charges of assault and kidnapping and was living with Candace and her husband, Donald in Maple Heights Ohio. On August 10^th the Schneiders returned home after being out of town and discovered that some rare coins they had were gone. They contacted the police but whether they told law enforcement or only those close to them it was said that they suspected Denny had taken the items. Later that day Candace went to work at a local retail provider. She worked until just before midnight that night but the following day someone called her work saying that she would not be in because her husband was in the hospital.

A few days later Candace's granddaughter, Candace Flagg became worried when she did not hear from her grandmother for her birthday. On the 13^th she began calling family members but no one had seen the Schneiders. Flagg then called her grandmother's work and was told the story about Donald being in the hospital. The story was becoming more bizarre to Flagg because she was certain if this story were true there would be those in the family who knew. Even still Flagg contacted all of the local hospitals but received no details. Eventually Flagg finally reached her cousin, Denny Obermiller. It appears that he indicated that while he lived with the couple he had not been home in a few days and told her that he would check on them and call her back. The following day Obermiller had not called her back so she called him once again. According to Flagg he initially stated he had not gone by to check on them but when she stated she would send someone over to the house to do so he changed his story saying he had in fact checked on them and they were fine.

Next Flagg decided to call the Maple Heights police department and ask them to go to the home. It seems that they simply drove by the home and did not go to the door. They reported back to Flagg that Donald's van was in the driveway of the home. Later that evening they were asked to go back and do an official “welfare check.” Two officers went to the door and while they smelled a strong odor of gas they saw a body as they looked through the window.

Upon gaining safe entry into the home investigators would find the bodies of Donald and Candace Schneider. Candace was found on the floor of a first floor bedroom. She had been handcuffed and was naked from the waist down. Her face was covered with a sheet and she had been strangled with an electrical cord. There were two used condoms near her body. Donald was found in an upstairs bedroom, face down on the bed. He too was handcuffed and had been strangled with a bed sheet. Authorities found the burners on the gas stove were left on and a candle had been lit in the front room of the house over the mantle of the fireplace. The only thing that appeared to be missing was the television.

Denny Obermiller would become an immediate suspect. On August 15^th a relative called the police and told them that Denny was headed to their home. Authorities found him as he was driving to the relatives home and after a short foot chase he was taken into custody. By all accounts it appears that he soon confessed to murdering both his grandmother and her husband.

While a confession does not always mean that the person charged will plead guilty to the court and eliminate the idea of having a trial, it also does not mean that they will not. One thing that I think that often confuses, and sometimes angers people is when they hear that someone has confessed to a crime and then pleads not guilty when placed in front of a judge. Nearly 100% of people will plead not guilty at their first appearance in front of a judge. This is not only advised by nearly all attorney's and even judges. The first plea hearing is generally within days of charges being filed and sometimes within hours of a defense attorney being appointed, if not minutes, if in fact one has been appointed at all by this time. Regardless of guilt or innocence our justice system works to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to be represented by an attorney and make sure that the law and rules are followed. A few days does not give a defendant, nor really even a prosecutor to adequately have their case together. Even still it did not take the parties long to come to some sort of conclusion in the case.

By February of 2011 Denny Obmiller had decided to change his plea to guilty to all of the seventeen counts that he faced. While the murder of his grandparents seemed heinous enough much of the animosity directed towards him had to do with the fact that it was proven that he had raped his grandmother before she was murdered. In cases such as these prosecutors will often offer the defendant a deal in which they would no longer seek the death penalty if they plead guilty to the charges. Many times the reprieve from death is really all the prosecutors offer. This case was different. It appears that Denny Obermiller made no such deal with the prosecutors and instead simply walked into court changing his plea to guilty and in essence advocating for himself that he receive the death penalty. The judge in the case obliged.

There have been defendants over time that have pleaded guilty and even asked for the death penalty be imposed. Some who have been given the death penalty have waived their rights to appeals and some of them have been executed by various states. In general I admit it sometimes irritates me when a defendant does not fight their case in the beginning, asks for the death penalty and then later continues to fight it within in the court. But, despite the heinousness of this crime, the admitted guilt of the defendant, and the fact that eventually DNA testing would link him to the two condoms laying next to his grandmother, I am surprisingly okay with him now fighting the death penalty that he himself asked for and received.

Let me first point out that I am not necessarily saying that I do not believe that Obermiller deserved the death penalty. However, from the time of the murders until the time in which he was sentenced to death (times 2), plus thirty-two years for all of his charges was a span of only six months. The justice system does not, nor in my opinion should it work that fast. It is extremely reasonable to believe that both the prosecutor and the defense attorney had many other clients and cases in which to investigate, work on and prepare for. In my opinion it seems unreasonable to believe that either side had done enough on this case to determine that the verdict and sentence was appropriate. Now of course the prosecution simply wanted a “win” and I can hardly blame them if they had a defendant or a defense attorney willing to plead guilty before they were even ready to do so. However, to add to this it is my opinion that because of this short time period and the lack of time to do a full fledged investigation into not just the crime but the motive and the defendant I believe that it was an “open” plea because the prosecutors were not prepared to take the death penalty off the table because even they were not sure what they were looking at. With this being said the responsibility lands squarely on the defense, whether it be the defendant himself or his attorney's. In my opinion, despite the fact he had a prior conviction that may have likely touched on many of the issues involved in his childhood, these short six months could have no way adequately have examined not just the case and the motive, but Obermiller's personality and any psychological issues he may have suffered from. I am not saying that I believe that these would have been excuses to adequately reject the sentence that he received, but in my opinion it is paramount when it comes to the defense of another person in any criminal case but especially one that would have the defendant facing the death penalty.

There have been several appeals in this case but it has been consistently upheld. While the state of Ohio has continued to follow through on the death penalty their governor has also commuted several cases to life without parole. An article published in 2017 stated that Denny Obermiller was scheduled to die in January of 2020. However there is a list of scheduled executions and I was unable to find Obermiller's name. Another article states that the date as been “removed.”

There seems to be little to no doubt that Denny Obermiller committed these murders. The only thing that seems questionable is whether he will be executed for his crime.