A Summit County jury has once again convicted Jeffery Conrad.
A jury found Conrad guilty in October 2015 of the stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend.
Another jury found Conrad guilty Friday of the stabbing of another jail inmate.
The latest jury deliberated Thursday afternoon and all day Friday before finding Conrad guilty of felonious assault and not guilty of attempted murder. The jury reported being deadlocked about 2:30 p.m. Friday, and Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Paul Gallagher asked them to continue deliberating.
Conrad will be sentenced by Gallagher for both the jail incident and the prior stabbing case at 9 a.m. Jan. 18. He faces up to eight years on the felonious assault charge and life without parole on the charges in the murder case.
Conrad, 45, wasn’t in court when the jury’s verdicts were read Friday, just as he refused to be present during his trial for the November 2014 assault of Dennis McClelland, a fellow inmate at the Summit County Jail. Conrad will again be given the opportunity to be present for his sentencing.
Conrad also chose to skip his trial for the August 2014 stabbing death of Amanda Russell, his ex-girlfriend, in the backyard of her Cuyahoga Falls home. A jury found him guilty of aggravated murder, felonious assault, violating a protection order and domestic violence.
In that trial, Conrad didn’t have an attorney to represent him. Against his wishes, Gallagher had attorney Job Perry continue to represent Conrad in the jail assault trial, which began Monday.
Prosecutors say Conrad swiped a wooden plunger from a broom closet at the jail, broke it in half and sharpened it into a point. They say Conrad went to McClelland’s cell and attacked him with the homemade weapon, stabbing him in the head, neck and face, causing numerous lacerations, including a few that left permanent scars.
McClelland, 37, of Hudson, who is serving five years in prison on a drug charge, testified during the trial, saying he thought he was fighting for his life when Conrad attacked him. Several other jail inmates testified that they saw Conrad go to McClelland’s cell, open and shut the door, and then heard noises coming from the cell.
Prosecutors told the jury the case was like “murder on a pirate ship” because the defendant, victim and witnesses are all men convicted of crimes.
Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Angela Walls-Alexander asked jurors in her closing argument Thursday not to judge the inmates based on their crimes but on how credible witnesses they were. She said McClelland has nothing to gain by testifying against Conrad “other than justice.”
Perry, however, told jurors in his closing argument that this was a mutual fight between McClelland and Conrad that resulted in only superficial injuries to McClelland, none that were life-threatening. If Conrad was trying to kill McClelland, Perry said he would have stabbed him in a vital organ.
“There was no aim to kill,” he said.
Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Tom Kroll, however, held up the plunger handle prosecutors say was used in the attack for jurors. He talked again about the steps that went into preparing this homemade weapon and McClelland’s injuries.
“This defendant was trying to end his life,” he said.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @swarsmithabj and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/swarsmith.