Execution date set for killer of 2 Toledo businessmen

7/21/2008

COLUMBUS - Gregory L. Bryant-Bey has a date with Ohio's lethal injection chamber on Nov. 19 for the robbery murder of a North Toledo merchant in 1992.

The Ohio Supreme Court set the date Monday after his federal and state appeals had run their course and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his case.

Bryant-Bey, who will mark his 53rd birthday on Aug. 6 at Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, faces a death sentence for stabbing Dale Pinkelman, owner of Pinky's Collectibles. He was also convicted in a similar murder of Peter Mihas, owner of The Board Room restaurant in downtown Toledo.

It was the similarity between the two murders that ultimately led to the death sentence. Both men were stabbed in the chest. Their pants were removed and their shoes were lined up next to their bodies.

Bryant-Bey was convicted first and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the murder of Mr. Mihas. Evidence from that case later helped to convict him in the Pinkelman murder.

This marks the first scheduled execution of a death row inmate from northwest Ohio since the U.S. Supreme Court used a Kentucky case to uphold the constitutionality of the lethal injection process. A similar challenge to Ohio's lethal injection protocol is still pending in federal court.

After months of stays, the Ohio Supreme Court resumed signing death warrants on July 11. Richard Cooey is scheduled to die on Oct. 14 for the 1986 rapes and murders of two University of Akron students in 1986.

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com, or 614-221-0496.