The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the conviction and death sentence of Calvin Neyland Jr., who
was found guilty of two murders at a Perrysburg Township company in 2007.
The 5-2 decision, written by Justice Sharon L. Kennedy, upholds the judgment of the Wood County Court of
Common Pleas.
Neyland, now 50, formerly of Toledo, was convicted in the Aug. 8, 2007, murders of Douglas Smith, a
branch manager at Liberty Transportation in Perrysburg Township, and Thomas Lazar, Liberty’s safety
director.
The company had reportedly received a number of complaints about Neyland from customers, and he was to be
fired at a meeting scheduled for that day.
Neyland was found guilty in a jury trial of two counts of aggravated murder, which included two death
penalty specifications for purposely killing the men as part of a course of conduct. Neyland was
sentenced to death. The case was heard in the court of Judge Robert Pollex.
Neyland is currently incarcerated at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution.
He brought up a total of 19 legal issues in his appeal, notably the question of his mental competency to
stand trial, and whether it had been proper for him to have worn leg shackles during the trial.
The decision notes that if the shackling had been seen by the jury, it did not contribute to the verdict
because of the overwhelming evidence of guilt presented at trial.
However, the decision did state that the trial court made some errors, including leaving the decision of
whether Neyland should have worn a second shackle up to the Wood County Sheriff’s Office, and allowing
the jury to hear evidence of weapons and ammunition found in both a hotel room Neyland occupied and in a
storage unit because the items were not connected to the murders.
In independently reviewing Neyland’s death sentence, Kennedy wrote that the court gave significant weight
to Neyland’s personality disorders and mental problems, given what was characterized as his paranoia,
and bizarre comments and periodic odd behavior at trial. The majority of the justices determined that
the aggravating circumstance of each murder count outweighed the mitigation of these issues factor
beyond a reasonable doubt.
Dissenting was Justice Paul E. Pfeifer, who, while concurring with the majority on the convictions,
concluded that Neyland should not be put to death based on his mental health at the time, as well a
other factors.
The other dissenting justice, William M. O’Neill, in a separate opinion, said that Neyland was and
continues to be mentally ill. He stated that though the families of Smith and Lazar "suffered
tremendously" due to Neyland’s actions, and Neyland deserves punishment, he could not support the
death penalty due to the man’s mental state.