death penalty news August 18, 2004
OHIO: If peeper suspect dies, 5 could face death penalty North Royalton- Five adults and one juvenile who allegedly took part in the beating and sodomy of a man they found peeping into the bedroom window of a sleeping 5-year-old girl must now answer criminal charges. The adults - one of whom is the girl's mother - could face charges that carry the death penalty if Mario Russo dies, police said. Russo, 44, remains unconscious on a ventilator at MetroHealth Medical Center, where officials described his condition as critical. Police said apartment security cameras recorded Russo peering into the girl's window Saturday morning and the beating, and gave officers a minute-by-minute record of the crime. "This is one of the tightest cases I've ever had," North Royalton Detective Jay Drake said. "Everything's on tape." One woman, Athena Lemieux, 20, of Elyria, a part-time exotic dancer at Bugsy's Speakeasy on West 25th Street, faces rape and felonious assault charges because police say she inserted a foot-long tree branch into Russo's rectum. Charged with felonious assault and complicity to commit rape were the 5-year-old's mother, Stacy Umstott, 28, of North Royalton, also an exotic dancer at Bugsy's; her boyfriend, Khalid Arafat, 34, of Cleveland; Nicholas Phipps, 21, of Cleveland; and Brandon Breeden, 19, of Elyria. (source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)
