Teen Gloria Pointer's rapist, killer Hernandez Warren sentenced to life in prison after 30 years free, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor McGinty at the helm, her mother Yvonne Pointer vows to continue her community advocacy: Imperial women, community activists applaud Yvonne Pointer for her courage and community advocacy, say they hope Warren rots in hell like serial rapist Ariel Castro and serial killer Anthony Sowell: Imperial Women object to statement by Warren's lawyers that he has been rehabilitated, say comment was irresponsible, insensitive
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| Convicted rapist and teen murderer Hernandez Warren |
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| Victim Gloria Pointer |
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| Gloria Pointer's mother Yvonne Pointer, now a community activist and children and woman's advocate, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, who broke the case with DNA sampling that had been unsolved since 1984, and he did it less than two years after taking the helm as county prosecutor in 2012 |
CLEVELAND, Ohio-After three decades of pain and grief following the unsolved rape and murder of her 14-year-old daughter Gloria, Yvonne Pointer, now a woman's advocate, a nationally recognized author, and a missing children's spokesperson, found some solace on Friday as the rapist and murderer of her daughter was sentenced to life in prison.
The sentence, which mandates that Hernandez Warren, 59, serve at least 30 years before being considered for parole, follows a plea deal negotiated by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty and accepted by a three-judge panel of Common Pleas Judges Michael Astrab, John O'Donnell and David Matia.
That deal also took the death penalty off the table.
Yvonne Pointer was likely spared years of appeals, legal experts said, given Warren's original not guilty plea and his fight to keep out a confession that his attorneys argued was orchestrated by police after his alleged request for an attorney was ignored.
Matia, one of 34 judges on the largely White Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas General Division bench, subsequently ruled the confession admissible because while Warren requested a phone call during questioning, he did not specifically ask to call an attorney.
Warren pleaded guilty to charges of rape and aggravated murder as part of the plea deal.
A strong and brave Yvonne Pointer said at the sentencing that she will continue fighting to seek to eradicate violence against women and children and that she will advocate relative to cold cases, including the Cleveland East 93rd Street Murders. Still unsolved, those cases concern at least four women found murdered last year along a mile long stretch at East 93rd Street on the city's largely Black east side, namely Jazmine Trotter, 20, Christine Malone, 45, Ashley Leszyeski 21, and Jameela Hasan, who was stabbed 15 times.
"We are going to try to get some of the cases solved," said Pointer, also a community activist.
Gloria Pointer, who was Black, was raped and murdered on her way to Harry E. Davis Middle School on Cleveland's east side the morning of Dec. 6, 1984. Her lifeless body was found beaten and raped under a fire escape stairwell.
The case remained unsolved until McGinty took the helm as county prosecutor in 2012 and last year linked the killer's DNA to the teen's rape and murder.
A prior sex offender, Warren had originally pleaded not guilty and his lawyers said at sentencing, where he did not formally speak, that he has been "rehabilitated."
Community activists women disagree.
"We do not believe that Mr Warren, a child rapist and murderer, has been rehabilitated in any manner whatsoever because he has no soul, and no conscience, we believe, and for his lawyers to say otherwise at sentencing is irresponsible and insensitive to the victim and her family," said Imperial Women Coalition Leader Kathy Wray Coleman, who said that women of her group were at the hearing Wednesday to support Yvonne Pointer when Warren entered his guilty plea. They came back on Friday for the sentencing to a packed courtroom.
"He is a coward that has been finally brought to justice," said Coleman. "And while we support Yvonne Pointer for her long term bravery and advocacy of women and children, collectively we hope Mr. Warren some day rots in hell for his crimes along with serial rapist Ariel Castro, and serial killer Anthony Sowell."
Bettie Simpson, a community activist and member of the grassroots group the Imperial Women Coalition, said that she attended the hearing on Wednesday to watch Warren plead guilty to the rape and murder of Gloria Pointer, and that she went to the sentencing too.
"It was important that representatives from area women's groups were there," said Simpson.
Sowell, 53, sits on death row following convictions in 2011 on 82 of 83 counts, including multiple counts of rape and murder, including the 11 Black women that he strangled to death at his since demolished home on Imperial Avenue on Cleveland's east side. His convictions, including the death penalty, are on appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court.
Under McGinty's leadership, Castro, 53, the most infamous of greater Cleveland rapists, pleaded guilty last year to numerous charges, including multiple counts of rape and kidnapping after holding Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight captive for a decade in his since demolished home on Seymour Avenue on Cleveland's largely White west side. He hanged himself with a bed sheet in prison last October, just over two months into a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Berry, DeJesus and Knight escaped in May of last year after neighbor Charles Ramsey, who is Black, kicked in the front door of the Castro home after hearing screams for help from Berry.
DeJesus was 14 when Castro kidnapped her, Berry was 16, and Knight was 21.
Yvonne Pointer is now a community liaison for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, and under Community Relations Board Director Blaine Griffin, also vice chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. Since the tragedy she has written four books, appeared nationally with celebrities such as Samuel L. Jackson and Queen Latifah , traveled internationally on women and children's issues, including to West Africa, and received accommodations for her tireless efforts from former President George Bush and a host of others.(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com
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