Murder of Alianna DeFreeze

Last updated
Alianna DeFreeze
Born
Alianna Serena DeFreeze

(2002-06-12)June 12, 2002
DiedJanuary 26, 2017(2017-01-26) (aged 14)
Cause of deathStabbing
Body discoveredJanuary 29, 2017
Resting placeLake View Cemetery
NationalityAmerican
Known forBeing the inspiration and namesake of Alianna Alert
Parent(s)Damon DeFreeze
Donnesha Cooper

On January 26, 2017, Alianna DeFreeze, a fourteen-year-old girl from Cleveland, Ohio, was kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered by Christopher Whitaker. [1] [2] Whitaker, who had a criminal history involving grand theft, burglary, aggravated robbery, felonious assault, [3] and sexual assault, [4] took DeFreeze to an abandoned house, where he raped her. She was found beaten [5] and stabbed to death [6] using a hammer, [2] a screwdriver, a nut driver, a box cutter, and a drill. [5] DeFreeze, who attended school at E Prep & Village Prep Woodland Hills, [7] was reported missing, causing a city-wide search. [8] Her body was discovered three days later. [9] [10]

Contents

Whitaker’s murder trial occurred in February 2018. [11] [12] Defense attorneys argued that Whitaker's drug use impaired his ability to control impulses and obey the law [13] while prosecutors disagreed, saying that he knew what he was doing. [14] The jury convicted Whitaker on February 13, 2018. [5] Later, the jury recommended that Whitaker receive the death penalty and the judge upheld it. [15] Whitaker is currently on death row. [16]

In 2019 DeFreeze’s parents filed a lawsuit against several people and entities arguing that the school's failure to notify them about DeFreeze’s absence and the failure to monitor abandoned properties led to her death. [17] In 2022, DeFreeze’s family received a $1 million settlement. [18] In 2019 Governor John Kasich signed a law named after DeFreeze which requires schools to notify parents of unexcused absences within two hours. [19]

Background

Alianna DeFreeze

Alianna DeFreeze, the daughter of Damon DeFreeze and Donnesha Cooper, [20] was a seventh-grader at E Prep & Village Prep Woodland Hills. [17] She was fourteen years old and had a developmental disability. [21] She would take the RTA bus to school, which her mother and grandmother did not like, though the fact that one stop was in front of a police station made them feel better about her means of transportation. [22]

Alianna DeFreeze was the granddaughter of Donald DeFreeze, the founder and leader of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a left-wing terrorist organization that gained notoriety for kidnapping Patty Hearst. [23]

Christopher Whitaker

Christopher Whitaker (born 1973) [16] was a native of Fayetteville, Tennessee with a long criminal record. [4] His crimes and alleged crimes include:

Crime

RTA surveillance footage recorded on the morning of January 26, 2017, shows DeFreeze exiting a bus, while surveillance video from a business shows her crossing East 93rd Street. She was then stopped outside the True Gospel Missionary Baptist Church by Whitaker, who, according to video recorded from the church, had been pacing around the area for several hours. DeFreeze took a step back from Whitaker, who followed her. [2] According to a witness, Whitaker grabbed her as she walked along East 93rd Avenue. The witness did not contact the police because he was unsure of the relationship between DeFreeze and Whitaker. [25] Surveillance video then shows Whitaker leading DeFreeze through a field to Fuller Avenue. [2]

Whitaker took DeFreeze to an abandoned house. There, he raped her. Whitaker then used a Black and Decker drill, a Phillips-head screwdriver, a nut driver, a box cutter, [5] and a hammer [2] to stab and beat her to death. [6] DeFreeze died as a result of the stab wounds and blunt force injuries [26] which were numerous and severe. [27] [28]

Whitaker claimed he was high on cocaine and blacked out during the crime. [14] [29] After murdering DeFreeze, in the late morning hours, Whitaker assisted a pastor at the Golgatha Missionary Baptist Church to unload food pantry items from a truck. The pastor described Whitaker's demeanor as calm. [28]

Criminal proceedings

Investigation

Her mother became concerned at 4:00 pm when DeFreeze had still not returned home from school. She called E Prep and was informed that DeFreeze never arrived at school. [17] DeFreeze was reported missing, prompting a city-wide search. [8]

On January 29, DeFreeze's body was found at the house where Whitaker had murdered her by three Cleveland police officers. [9] The officers entered the house after noticing that the back door was open [2] and found a trail of blood leading from the dining room into a room behind a closed door. After kicking open the door, they found DeFreeze's deceased body crumpled in a corner in a pool of blood. She was naked except for her socks and had wounds to her head. [9]

The boxcutter was used to slash DeFreeze's neck, while the drill had been used to put four puncture wounds into her cheek and a wound on her forehead that dislodged her right eyeball from the socket. Because many of the wounds showed signs that they had started healing, they were inflicted on her several hours before she died. [9] DeFreeze appeared as if she had been dragged and thrown into the room. [2] DeFreeze’s clothing, including a tie soaked with blood and a sweater torn open down the front, were found strewn about the house. [9]

Along with DeFreeze's clothing, police also found her backpack and tools, including a drill, box cutter, [2] a screwdriver, [28] and a hammer, all of which had blood on them. [2] The tools were laid out on a built-in bench in the dining room, which prosecutors described as a makeshift workstation. [5]

DeFreeze’s body was identified using dental records by the medical examiner's office. [4] An autopsy performed by Cuyahoga County Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. David Dolinak revealed that she suffered wounds caused by tools found in the house, including a drill, a screwdriver, and a box cutter. She had so many injuries and her injuries were so severe that Dolinak could not identify which one caused her death. Forensics analysts also found Whitaker's DNA on DeFreeze's body. [28] Whitaker was identified using the DNA [30] and was arrested at 7:00 pm on February 2 at the Villa Serena Apartments in Mayfield Heights with the assistance of U.S. Marshalls. [4]

Whitaker was interrogated by Cleveland Police, and changed his story several times, initially denying any involvement in the murder and then going on to admit his involvement, but still denying responsibility by blaming his actions on crack-cocaine use. Whitaker said that he had blacked out after punching DeFreeze and that he would not have committed the crime if he were sober. "People are going to look at me like a monster. I'm not a monster,” he told investigators, adding that he was “just an addict who made a mistake that shouldn't have happened." Whitaker also told investigators that he did not want his face in the news. [31]

Trial and death sentence

DeFreeze's murder trial began on February 1, 2018. [11] Whitaker's defense attorneys acknowledged his crimes but said that his drug use made him less able to control his impulses and follow the law. [13] Prosecutors disagreed, with assistant prosecutor Mahmoud Awadallah saying: “the evidence does not point to a drug-induced frenzy, does not point to a blackout. It points to that he knows what he was doing.” [14] On February 13, 2018, Whitaker was found guilty [5] of ten counts. [14]

After convicting Whitaker jurors had to decide whether or not he should be sentenced to death or life in prison. On February 23, the jury recommended that he be put to death [12] and Judge Carolyn Friedland agreed and formally sentenced him on March 26, [32] saying that the mitigating circumstances "pale in comparison to the barbarity of the evidence." [11]

DeFreeze's mother told the court that “death is too good for him, and I won’t believe he has any remorse until he suffers like my daughter suffered.” DeFreeze’s father told Whitaker “when you get where you’re going, you’re going to get what you got coming, before you get to the gas, lethal injection chamber, and that “my baby didn’t have a chance.” [14] The woman Whitaker had attacked in 2005 supported his death sentence. [33] Along with his death sentence, Whitaker was sentenced to forty-eight years in prison for aggravated burglary, felonious assault, rape, obstruction of justice, and gross abuse of a corpse. [14]

Appeal

On August 22, 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected Whitaker's appeal and upheld his death sentence. His execution is scheduled to take place in July 2026. [34]

Whitaker is currently imprisoned on death row at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, Ohio for aggravated burglary, kidnapping, rape, aggravated murder, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse. [16]

Aftermath

Hundreds of people attended DeFreeze’s funeral on February 11. [35]

Shortly after the murder, DeFreeze's mother became homeless. [22]

DeFreeze’s family began a nonprofit foundation in her name called the Alianna DeFreeze Let’s Make A Change Foundation. The foundation works to address the issues of abandoned homes, help children obtain safe routes to school, [36] and address domestic violence, homelessness, and police-community relations. [37]

In January 2019, DeFreeze's parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas naming the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, E Prep and Village Prep Woodland Hills, Friends of Breakthrough Schools, the City of Cleveland, the man who owned the abandoned house where the crime occurred, murderer Christopher Whittaker, and others as defendants. The lawsuit claims that there was a system in place in which administrators at E Prep would send an automated message notification to parents to alert them about news involving their children, including unexcused absences. [17] DeFreeze's parents were signed up to receive text messages in the case of their daughter's unexcused absence but did not receive any such notification, [21] only finding out about her absence at 4:00 pm after she did not make it home. The lawsuit alleges that the school was aware of DeFreeze’s absence but did not contact her parents. If DeFreeze's parents had been notified immediately or within a reasonable time, she might have been located before being raped, tortured, and murdered. [17] The lawsuit also alleges that the school lied when they said they tried to send an alert but failed and that they should have been immediately concerned about DeFreeze's absence because of her developmental disability and because it was uncharacteristic of her to miss school. The lawsuit states that because of the defendants' negligence, DeFreeze’s last hours "were spent in excruciating, paralyzing, debilitating and unthinkable physical and mental pain." [21] The lawsuit also claims that the City of Cleveland and city employees failed to monitor abandoned properties and prevent illicit activities from occurring in them and names the owner of the house where the murder occurred, saying that he failed to maintain, operate and monitor it. [17] DeFreeze’s family is seeking fifteen million in damages. [17] [38] In March 2019, the DeFreezes filed an amended complaint, which E Prep moved to dismiss. E Prep argued that it is immune from liability due to its status as a political subdivision. The trial court denied the motion, and E Prep appealed to Ohio's Court of Appeals for the Eighth District, which ruled in their favor. [39] In January 2022, DeFreeze’s family received a $1 million settlement in connection with the lawsuit filed against her school and the city. [18]

In January 2019, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed the Alianna Alert bill [19] after it passed the House of Representatives 85-4. [40] The law requires schools to call parents within 120 minutes of the start of the school day if their child is absent without the parents having previously notified the school. It went into effect in April 2019. [41] [42] DeFreeze's mother also expressed an interest in having more police protect the streets. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Louisiana</span> Overview of the use of capital punishment in the U.S. state of Louisiana

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Louisiana.

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of New Hampshire for persons convicted of capital murder prior to 30 May 2019, when it was abolished prospectively for future crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lil' Miss murder</span> American murder case

The Lil' Miss murder is the name given to the murder case of Lisa Marie Kimmell, a young woman who disappeared while traveling from Denver, Colorado, to her family's home in Billings, Montana. Her case was given its name due to her vehicle, a Honda CR-X, which had the distinctive personalized license plate reading "LIL MISS", a fact widely publicized in efforts to recover her.

Kenneth Biros was an American convicted murderer who was sentenced to death and executed for the aggravated murder, attempted rape, aggravated robbery and felonious sexual penetration of a young woman. Biros was the first condemned person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States with the use of a single drug, setting a Guinness World Record.

Crystal Gail Mangum is an American former exotic dancer and convicted murderer from Durham, North Carolina who is best known for having made false allegations of rape against lacrosse players in the 2006 Duke lacrosse case. The fact that Mangum was a black woman working in the sex industry, while the accused were all white men, created extensive media interest and academic debate about race, class, gender and the politicization of the justice system.

Lance Timothy Mason is a convicted murderer, former politician, government official, and judge, who served in various offices in and representing Cleveland, Ohio.

Richard Wade Cooey II was an American murderer. With Clinton Dickens, he was responsible for the murders of 21-year-old Wendy Offredo and 20-year-old Dawn McCreery in Akron, Ohio, on September 1, 1986. He became notable for his argument that, with his weight of over 275 lb (125 kg), he was too obese to be executed – an argument ultimately rejected by the courts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breed Motorcycle Club</span> Outlaw Motorcycle Club

The Breed Motorcycle Club was a one-percenter motorcycle club that was formed in Asbury Park, New Jersey in the United States in 1965. The club disbanded in 2006 after numerous prominent members were indicted on racketeering and drug trafficking charges.

Romell Broom was an American death row inmate who was convicted of murder, kidnapping and rape. He was sentenced to death for the 1984 murder of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton. Broom was scheduled to be executed on September 15, 2009, but after executioners failed to locate a vein he was granted a reprieve. A second execution attempt was scheduled for June 2020, which was delayed until March 2022. Broom died from COVID-19 in prison before the sentence could be carried out.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Sowell</span> American serial killer (1959–2021)

Anthony Edward Sowell was an American serial killer and rapist known as The Cleveland Strangler or The Imperial Avenue Murderer. He was convicted in 2011 of murdering 11 women whose bodies were discovered at his Cleveland, Ohio, home in 2009. After being sentenced to death for the murders, Sowell died in prison from a terminal illness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarence Elkins</span> American wrongfully convicted for murder and rape

Clarence Arnold Elkins Sr. is an American man who was wrongfully convicted of the 1998 rape and murder of his mother-in-law, Judith Johnson, and the rape and assault of his wife's niece, Brooke Sutton. He was convicted solely on the basis of the testimony of his wife's six-year-old niece who testified that Elkins was the perpetrator.

On the morning of February 27, 2012, six students were shot at Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio, resulting in the deaths of three of them. Witnesses said that the shooter had a personal rivalry with one of his victims. Two other wounded students were also hospitalized, one of whom sustained several serious injuries that have resulted in permanent paralysis. The fifth student suffered a minor injury, and the sixth a superficial wound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ariel Castro kidnappings</span> 2002–2004 kidnappings in Cleveland, Ohio, US

Between 2002 and 2004, Ariel Castro abducted Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus from the streets of Cleveland, Ohio and later held them captive in his home of 2207 Seymour Avenue in the city's Tremont neighborhood. All three young women were imprisoned at Castro's home until 2013, when Berry successfully escaped with her six-year-old daughter, to whom she had given birth while captive, and contacted the police. Police rescued Knight and DeJesus, and arrested Castro hours later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Madison</span> American serial killer and sex offender on death row

Michael Madison is an American convicted serial killer and sex offender from East Cleveland, Ohio who is known to have committed the murders of at least three women over a nine-month period in 2012 and 2013. He was arrested and charged with the crimes in 2013 and was sentenced to death in 2016. Madison is currently being held on death row.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shawn Grate</span> American serial killer on death row

Shawn Michael Grate is an American serial killer and rapist who was sentenced to death for the murders of five young women in and around northern Ohio from 2006 to 2016. Grate was convicted on two counts of aggravated murder on May 7, 2018, in Ashland County, pleaded guilty to two additional murders on March 1, 2019, in Richland County, and pleaded guilty to an additional murder on September 11, 2019, in Marion County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Angela Samota</span> 1984 murder in Texas, US

The murder of Angela Samota occurred on October 13, 1984, when she was attacked while in her apartment, raped and killed. The case remained unsolved until DNA evidence surfaced in the 2000s, following which charges were brought against a convicted rapist, Donald Andrew Bess Jr, who was subsequently tried and received a death sentence. He died of natural causes while awaiting execution in October 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Reagan Tokes</span> 2017 abduction, rape and murder that led to the "Reagan Tokes Act" in Ohio

The murder of Reagan Tokes occurred on the night of February 8, 2017, in the Scioto Grove Metro Park in Grove City, Ohio. Tokes, a twenty-one-year-old student at Ohio State University, was abducted by Brian Golsby while leaving her job in Columbus’s downtown. Golsby robbed and raped Tokes, and forced her to drive to the Scioto Grove Metro Park. There, he forced her to strip naked and marched her into a field where he shot her twice in the head just shortly before midnight. Her body was found the following morning.

The murder of Rachael Anderson occurred on January 28, 2018, in Columbus, Ohio. Anderson, a twenty-four-year-old aspiring funeral director, was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by Anthony Pardon in her apartment on her birthday. Pardon, a registered sex offender with an extensive criminal history, left Anderson's body in her bedroom closet where she was discovered the next day. A significant amount of evidence linked Pardon to the crime, including cellphone data and DNA. He was arrested and charged with Anderson's murder. He was convicted in 2020 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Ashley Zhao was a five-year-old girl who was discovered dead in her family's restaurant in Jackson Township, Stark County, Ohio, U.S.A., on January 10, 2017. Her death sparked an investigation lead by the local police department in cooperation with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Daniel Gaul is an American judge for the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Gaul was first elected to the court in 1991.

References

  1. Nyorkor, Chris Anderson, Sia. "Jury recommends death for the man who abducted, raped and killed Alianna DeFreeze". cleveland19.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Video shows murder suspect meeting Alianna DeFreeze, investigators say". February 5, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 "Who is Christopher Whitaker?". cleveland19.com.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Man charged in Alianna DeFreeze murder case". WEWS. February 3, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Christopher Whitaker convicted of killing Cleveland teen Alianna DeFreeze in death penalty case". cleveland. February 13, 2018.
  6. 1 2 "Alianna DeFreeze died of stab wounds, blunt force trauma". cleveland. February 14, 2017.
  7. Nyorkor, Sia. "Alianna DeFreeze's classmates plant garden in her memory". cleveland19.com.
  8. 1 2 "Man accused of killing 14-year-old goes to trial". WEWS. January 23, 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Jurors see tools used in slaying of Alianna DeFreeze". cleveland. February 6, 2018.
  10. "Alianna Selena DeFreeze (2002-2017) - Find a..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2022-03-16.
  11. 1 2 3 "Alianna DeFreeze's killer, Christopher Whitaker, sentenced to death". cleveland. March 26, 2018.
  12. 1 2 "Jury recommends death penalty for Christopher Whitaker in murder of Alianna DeFreeze: video". KYTX.
  13. 1 2 Shaffer, Cory (February 7, 2018). "Man who killed Alianna DeFreeze was high on cocaine, unable to follow laws, according to psychologist". cleveland.com.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Ohio Man Who Raped and Murdered 14-Year-Old Girl Gets Death Penalty: 'My Baby Didn't Have a Chance'". PEOPLE.com.
  15. "Sex offender sentenced to death in rape, murder of Ohio girl". WBNS-10TV Columbus, Ohio | Columbus News, Weather & Sports. March 27, 2018.
  16. 1 2 3 "Offender Details". appgateway.drc.ohio.gov.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Parents of Alianna DeFreeze file wrongful death lawsuit". WEWS. January 28, 2019.
  18. 1 2 Stimson, Brie (14 January 2022). "Cleveland parents of Alianna DeFreeze, 14, receive $1M settlement after her 2017 murder". foxnews.com.
  19. 1 2 "'Alianna Alert' school absence notification law takes effect Friday". cleveland. April 3, 2019.
  20. "'She still played with baby dolls': Mother of Alianna DeFreeze testifies at death penalty trial". cleveland. February 2, 2018.
  21. 1 2 3 "Slain girl's family says Cleveland school should've notified them sooner of her absence". www.cbsnews.com.
  22. 1 2 3 "Powerful message: Alianna DeFreeze's mother opens up about daughter's murder". February 28, 2017.
  23. "Alianna DeFreeze's grandfather was part of the militia that kidnapped Patty Hearst". 24 February 2017.
  24. "Accused of killing teen sexually assaulted, stabbed woman in 2005". cleveland. February 3, 2017.
  25. "Witness describes seeing abduction of 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze". February 6, 2018.
  26. "Alianna DeFreeze died of stab wounds". WEWS. February 13, 2017.
  27. "Disturbing details revealed in kidnapping and murder of Cleveland teen". February 8, 2018.
  28. 1 2 3 4 "Disturbing details revealed during Alianna DeFreeze trial". February 7, 2018.
  29. "'If I could go back to that day': Convicted killer apologizes to family of Alianna DeFreeze". February 22, 2018.
  30. "Christopher Whitaker is sentenced to death in murder of Alianna DeFreeze". March 26, 2018.
  31. "Alianna DeFreeze trial: Christopher Whitaker confession video". February 8, 2018.
  32. "L.A. councilman proposes ban to prevent adults with no kids from being in play areas". December 29, 2016.
  33. "Awful Details About The Man Sentenced To Death For The Rape And Murder Of A 14-Year-Old He Lured From A Bus Stop". YourTango. March 29, 2018.
  34. Nyorkor, Sia; Sapolin, Alec (August 22, 2022). "Ohio Supreme Court upholds death penalty for man guilty of raping, torturing, killing 14-year-old girl". cleveland19.com.
  35. "Hundreds come out to remember Alianna DeFreeze as she is laid to rest". February 11, 2017.
  36. "Death sentence for Alianna DeFreeze's killer". WEWS. March 26, 2018.
  37. "Welcome to the Alianna Defreeze Let's Make a Change Foundation #ali".
  38. "Ohio Girl, 14, Abducted, Killed on the way to School — and Her Parents Sue School for Not Reporting Her Absent". PEOPLE.com.
  39. O'Brien, John (September 4, 2020). "Ohio school wins lawsuit over abduction, murder of Alianna DeFreeze". legalnewsline.com.
  40. "'Alianna's Alert' bill heads to Gov. Kasich to be signed". WEWS. December 27, 2018.
  41. "Alianna's Alert: Ohio law will go into effect Friday after teen's tragic murder". April 3, 2019.
  42. Neese, Alissa Widman. "'Alianna's Alert' law starts for children absent from school without notice". The Columbus Dispatch.