Death Penalty

State of Ohio v. Charles Maxwell, Case no. 2007-0755

Cuyahoga county Court of Common Pleas

In this case, Charles Maxwell of Cleveland appeals his conviction and death sentence for the November 2005 aggravated murder of his former domestic partner, Nichole McCorkle.

Following a jury trial, Maxwell was found guilty of going to McCorkle's home with a gun and fatally shooting her "with prior calculation and design." The jury found Maxwell guilty of the death penalty specification that he killed McCorkle in retaliation for her testimony before a grand jury a few days earlier regarding a previous incident in which she had been hospitalized after being beaten by Maxwell.