Judge denies new trial in 1985 slayings

Man goes back to Death Row for killing five

A Montgomery County judge has denied Samuel Moreland’s bid for a new trial 18 years after he was convicted and sentenced to death in one of Dayton’s most notorious mass killings.

The decision puts Moreland back on track for execution for the fatal shootings of three children and two adults Nov. 1, 1985, in a house on South Ardmore Avenue.

The dead included Moreland’s girlfriend, Glenna Green, 46; her daughter, Lana Green, 23; and Glenna Green’s three grandchildren — Daytrin Talbott, 7; Datwan Talbott, 6, and Voliana Green, 6. Other children were wounded, but survived the rampage.

An 11-year-old boy, Dayron Talbott, testified at Moreland’s trial that he awoke on a couch as Moreland was pointing a gun at his grandmother, Glenna Green. She threw a bottle at Moreland as he shot her, the boy told the three-judge panel that convicted Moreland.

Judge Michael Tucker’s sevenpage decision, filed Dec. 23, wrapped up a four-year-old, postconviction appeal that included a bizarre hearing Sept. 20, 2002, at which Moreland challenged prosecutors to take a lie-detector test about the truthfulness of his legal challenge.

Tucker said Moreland failed to overcome his burden of proof in showing he did not knowingly and intelligently waive his right to a jury trial. Moreland’s attorneys, believing a jury would be overcome by testimony and photos of the carnage, said they had urged Moreland to opt for a three-judge panel. However, the three judges voted unanimously for execution. Moreland contended he was never told that choosing the three-judge panel meant forfeiting his right to have both a jury and the trial judge concur separately on execution, a two-stage penalty phase.

Moreland’s attorney, Gregory Meyers, senior assistant Ohio public defender, was not available for comment. Carley Ingram, chief of Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias H. Heck Jr.’s appellate division, said, “We are pleased with the outcome.”

Complicating Tucker’s decision, no record of the required, open-court proceeding —

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