Fri Feb 10 2012
The niece of Lawrence Reynolds' murder victim wants answers from state prisons officials on how the Death Row inmate obtained whatever he used in what appears to be an attempted overdose hours before he was to be transported to the site of his scheduled execution.
Denise Turchiano, an Orrville woman who is scheduled towitness Reynolds' execution Tuesday, reacted in anger and disbelief at the news.
"Who gave him this, and why was he not being watched," she said. "I want answers. ... Somebody better answer how in the hell this is happening in the system."
Lawrence Reynolds was to be transported to the Death House at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility early Monday morning.
Julie Walburn, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said Reynolds was found in his cell at the Ohio State Penitentiary about 11:30 p.m. Sunday.
He was transported by ambulance to the St. Elizabeth Health Center, where he remained this morning.
"He is in serious condition and is unconscious," Walburn said, adding, "At this point, we don't know the impact this will have on the scheduled execution tomorrow."
Prison officials suspect Reynolds attempted to overdose. Walburn declined to comment on medications he had access to and said an investigation into the matter was continuing.
Reynolds would have to be medically stable and released from the hospital in order to move forward with the execution, Walburn said.
In January 1994, Reynolds conned his way into the home Loretta Mae Foster, a 67-year-old neighbor. He beat her with a tent pole, tied her up with a telephone cord and strangled her to death.
Reynolds took about $40 in cash and a blank check belonging to the victim; Foster's nude body was later found on the floor of her house, after Reynolds bragged to friends about the killing. He was convicted for murder, kidnapping, burglary and attempted rape and sentenced to death.
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