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Home News Injustice in Ohio Accused killer of teenage couple says crime ate at him "like a cancer" Accused killer of teenage couple says crime ate at him "like a cancer"
Friday, 05 September 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008 9:10 AM
By Maureen Kocot and Randy Ludlow
WBNS-10TV THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A convict who confessed to shooting and dismembering a young Hocking County couple says he is prepared to die for his sins by offering up his arm for lethal injection.
In an interview behind bars, Chester W. McKnight told WBNS-TV (Channel 10) that he broke a quarter-century silence to admit to the 1982 slayings "because it's like a cancer that grows inside you."
McKnight, who is serving an unrelated sentence in the Madison Correctional Institution near London, said today that he deserves a cell on Death Row for the grisly slayings.
"I'm not fighting the death penalty. I want the death penalty. I'm ready. I'm ready to die. I took two lives. Why shouldn't I die for my sins?"
McKnight, 50, and Kenneth R. Linscott, 47, of Logan, were indicted Tuesday for aggravated murder, with death-penalty specifications, in the mutilation slayings.
The torsos of Todd L. Schultz, 19, and his fiancee, Annette Cooper, 18, were found in the Hocking River on Oct. 14, 1982, 10 days after they disappeared. Their heads and limbs were found buried in a nearby cornfield two days later. Rape appeared to be a motive in the slayings, said Sheriff Lanny North.
Cooper's stepfather, Dale Johnston, who now is 75 and lives in Grove City, was convicted of the slayings and sent to Death Row in 1984. He served nearly seven years before being freed by court rulings that threw out evidence against him.
At the time, McKnight said, he thought of Johnston's conviction: "Better him than me." But, the convict says he now thinks otherwise. "I'm sorry to put him through all the hell he went through. Now he can finally rest."
Johnston said he was "grateful" to learn of McKnight's apology. "Nothing's going to bring Annette or Todd back," he said. After sitting on Death Row himself, Johnston said he opposes capital punishment, even for McKnight.
He said he was nearly an "example" of an innocent man being put to death by a flawed justice system. He supports life imprisonment without parole for killers. "Killing would be too easy for him. Make him live with it every day."
Sheriff North did not return telephone calls seeking comment on McKnight's statements.
McKnight, who described himself as an abuser of drugs and alcohol in 1982, said his confession included leading investigators to the spot just outside Logan where Schultz and Cooper were killed. He expressed sorrow for their families.
McKnight is serving a 12-year sentence for sex crimes against children committed in Athens and Hamilton counties in 2004. Described by authorities as a drifter, he has lived in Athens, Columbus and Nelsonville.
His criminal record includes serving six months for abduction in 1984 and nearly 12 years for felonious assault before his release in 1999.
Linscott, who is being held in the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail at Nelsonville, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon in Hocking County Common Pleas Court.
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