Death Penalty Appeal in Triple Homicide Case Returns to Supreme Court
State of Ohio v. George C. Brinkman, Case No. 2023-0891
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court

In July 2021, the Supreme Court of Ohio unanimously invalidated George Brinkman's guilty plea for a 2017 triple homicide. The Supreme Court vacated his convictions and sentence, concluding that the trial court failed to fully advise Brinkman before his plea of the constitutional rights he would be waiving. The case dealt with charges for the murders of a North Royalton woman and her two daughters. It returned to the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court for new proceedings.

On remand, Brinkman waived a jury trial and pled guilty before a new three-judge panel to multiple counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping, and gross abuse of a corpse, and to specifications. In November 2022, the panel found Brinkman guilty on all counts. The judges then heard from experts during the mitigation phase in 2023. The court sentenced Brinkman to death on the aggravated murder convictions, plus 47 years for the other offenses.

A sentence of death triggers an automatic appeal to the Supreme Court.