Execution date shelved in fire deaths

1/18/2013
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU

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

The decision Thursday to postpone the May 7, 2014, execution is a routine procedure designed to move the case into the next round of appeals after the high court upheld his convictions and sentences last year.

Powell, 47, a former Toledoan, 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.

Killed were 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.