A 24-year-old man who beat his infant son to death pleaded guilty Thursday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court to a single murder charge and received a lifetime prison sentence with parole eligibility after 15 years.
Lawrence Lambert, of the 100 block of 17th Street, shook his head quietly when Judge Dean Mandros asked him if he had anything to say before sentencing, after which the judge said that all the law can do is hold Lambert accountable for what he had done.
“You wouldn’t do to an animal what happened to that child,” Judge Mandros said before handing down the statutory sentence.
Lambert was one of two 24-year-old men who made negotiated pleas to separate murders Thursday in the county courthouse. Earlier in the day, Andre Overton pleaded no contest to a murder charge, with a gun specification, for the Dec. 19, 2020, shooting death of Deneajia Smith at her home in the 1200 block of Mason Street.
The three-year gun specification is why visiting Judge James Bates sentenced Overton to life with parole eligibility after 18 years instead of the 15 years applicable to Lambert.
Overton had twice been declared incompetent to stand trial before receiving restorative mental health care, resulting in the unusually long time between his indictment and his case’s resolution. Judge Bates gave him credit for 1,334 days served -- nearly four years -- already served in jail.
Judge Mandros gave Lambert credit for 161 days served since his arrest, and his transfer to state prison will be on hold pending a mental-health assessment the judge ordered at defense lawyer Autumn Adams’ request.
“Only a monster could do what he did.... I hope Lawrence thinks about him [Legend] every day,” Regina Kanavel, the infant’s mother, wrote in a letter that her sister, Summer Kanavel, read to the court before Lambert’s sentencing.
“I go to bed every night hoping and praying it’s just a bad dream,” the mother wrote.
Defense lawyer Pete Rost blamed Lambert’s action on “a lack of self-control, a lack of parenting skills” and said the father was “very remorseful of the pain he has caused the rest of the family.”
Jennifer Liptack-Wilson, chief of criminal prosecution for the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office, said the case was “so egregious” that a murder conviction was the only appropriate outcome.
As part of the plea agreement, alternative counts of aggravated murder and murder, felonious assault, and child endangering against Lambert were dismissed after sentencing. Additional counts against Overton also were dismissed after his no-contest plea to the single murder count.
In Overton’s case, Kaitlyn Tauber, an assistant Lucas County prosecutor, said that along with a confession to police after he was later pulled over for speeding on I-475 in West Toledo, investigators recovered surveillance video from the house on Mason in which the shots can be heard and then Overton appears while stating out loud that he had just killed “Danny.”
After fleeing the house, Ms. Tauber said, he stole a car and drove into Michigan. After that car crashed, he walked to a nearby gas station and stole another before being pulled over by the Ohio State Highway Patrol back in Toledo. Police initially charged him with operating while impaired and speeding at 80 mph in a 60-mph zone near Douglas Road but then added murder charges after he described the killing in detail and said he was trying to go to Dallas.
Ms. Tauber said Overton also told troopers where he had dumped the shotgun with which he shot Ms. Smith three times in the head, but it was not recovered.
In a brief statement before the formal sentencing, defense lawyer Jeffrey Crowther said Overton had had “mental health issues for a long period of time” and that an appeal would be filed based on how his competency was handled. The issue for appeal, the lawyer said afterward, is whether the facts should result in Overton being committed to a psychiatric hospital rather than being sent to prison.
“This is why guns shouldn’t be around people with mental health issues,” Mr. Crowther said outside the courtroom.
Overton was initially found incompetent to stand trial, then, after being restored to competency was again ruled incompetent after Lucas County jail staff gave him the wrong medication, the defense lawyer said. More recently, he was found competent again, and, during an Aug. 1 hearing at which he was expected to enter a plea, Overton instead insisted that he would take the case to trial and be his own lawyer.
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