Killer may be spared execution

BY SHARON COOLIDGE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro thought he was double-checking evidence when he ordered DNA tests for a door-to-door salesman who was on death row, accused of raping and killing a 19-year-old Roselawn woman in 1982.

Instead, the evidence revealed semen taken from Karen Range after her stabbing death could not have belonged to David Steffen.

That revelation puts in question whether Steffen - one of the first people sentenced to death when Ohio re-instated the death penalty in 1981 - should be put to death.

A federal judge in Columbus ordered more extensive testing last week.

Whether Steffen raped Range or even attempted to rape her is crucial because it elevates the penalty for the crime from life in prison to death, said Assistant Ohio Public Defender Tim Payne, who represents Steffen.

Steffen was convicted of aggravated burglary, rape and aggravated murder during a rape, and aggravated murder during an aggravated burglary.

That carried with it two possibilities to impose the death penalty.

Steffen, 46, who is being held at Ohio's maximum security prison in Youngstown, has always denied the rape, saying he thought about it but was physically unable.

"He did confess to the murder, but he doesn't belong on death row," Payne said. "This new evidence establishes that David's sentencing process was infected with the invalid aggravated circumstance of rape."

That makes his sentence unconstitutional, Payne said.

At the very least, Steffen deserves a new sentence, Payne said. He would have been eligible for parole nearly a decade ago without that death-penalty link.

A MEMORABLE CASE

Steffen has never denied killing Range. Her death is one that many people in Hamilton County remember.

On Aug. 19, 1982, Range, who lived with her parents in Roselawn, was home alone when Steffen, a door-to-door salesman of all-purpose cleaners, knocked on the door.

Steffen, a convicted bank robber wanted on an Indiana parole violation, told police he was demonstrating the product when he slipped and fell into Range.

She screamed.

He panicked.

Steffen said he beat her unconscious when she wouldn't calm down. He then slit her throat with a knife from the kitchen.

Range, who would have headed to veterinarian school the following week and was planning to be married at Christmas that year, bled to death.

Her mother, Laurie, found her daughter later that day.

Tips quickly led authorities to Steffen.

Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Bill Breyer, who handled all appeals of the case, said Steffen at the very least attempted to rape Range. Her breasts were exposed. Her clothing, including underwear, was ripped.

But William Flax, the lawyer who represented Steffen at trial, said that claim was never proven in court. An autopsy showed no sign of forced sexual contact, and while a test of semen taken from Range after her death matched Steffen's blood type, it also matched her fiancé's blood type, he said.

A NEW TRIAL?

Breyer said the new DNA evidence shouldn't alter the death sentence because attempted rape - which he says is supported by evidence - is enough to pursue the death penalty.

"This new DNA evidence should change nothing," Breyer said. "She may have had consensual sex with somebody else, but it doesn't impact what he did to her."

Petro's move to test evidence with the latest and most sophisticated DNA testing is unusual. He has done it only twice before in capital cases, and both times it confirmed guilt.

Often defense attorneys ask for testing to prove their client's innocence. There have been 11 such requests in Ohio death-penalty cases.

In fact, Petro's office didn't even use genetic material entered into evidence. It tested a sample that wasn't used at trial.

"I believe in the power of DNA to both convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent," said Petro, who is running for governor. "We're seeking a just result."

Petro's chief deputy of criminal justice, James Canepa, said nothing will happen in the case before more testing is done. He said he doesn't expect Steffen to be released.

The worst-case scenario is a new trial, Canepa said.

Laurie Range, 73, who now lives in Florida, is exasperated. "It's difficult waiting for some kind of total closure," she said.

Karen Range would be 43 today.

Even after almost 24 years, there are still days filled with tears, Laurie Range said, especially when she thinks about what Steffen denied her.

"He denied me my daughter and the family she would have had," she said.

The right punishment has already been ordered, she said.

She'll just keep waiting. She has no choice.

"Even if there is another trial, I will be there," she said.