2014 execution canceled for Wayne Powell, convicted for killing 4 people in 2006 house fire

The scheduled 2014 execution of convicted murderer Wayne Powell, shown here flanked by his attorneys during his Lucas County Common Pleas Court trial in 2007, has been canceled.

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court today canceled its own set date for the execution of Wayne Powell for the arson deaths of four people, including two children, in a 2006 Toledo house fire.

The postponement of the scheduled May 7, 2014 execution is a routine procedure designed to move the case into the next round of appeals after the state’s high court upheld his convictions and sentences last year.

Powell, 47, was convicted of pouring gasoline into the house at 714 St. John Ave. through a crack in a door early in the morning of Nov. 11, 2006 and then setting the house ablaze. The fire killed his ex-girlfriend, Mary Rose McCullum, 33; her ailing mother, Rose Mary McCollum, 52; her adopted son, Jamal, 4, and niece, Sanaa' Thomas, 2.

In addition to the four death sentences, Powell faces a 10-year prison sentence for aggravated arson. He is incarcerated on death row at Chillicothe Correctional Institution.